Sheffield Speedway Match Reports 2007

First victory to the Tigers as they won the toss and selected gates 1&3. Elbows clashed on the first turn in heat 1 and Ricky Ashworth ended on his backside. All 4 back was Chris Guy's verdict. Both Rockets returned to the pits and were quite some time before they re-emerged. Ben Wilson couldn't emulate his good gate and it's a comfortable 5-1 for the Rockets with Ricky passing Ben on the third lap. James Cockle makes a great start to lead heat 2 from Adam Roynon with Jordan Frampton climbing all over Luke Bowen for third. Jordan tried too hard and tumbled off on the second lap while James soaked up everything that Adam threw at him. It's Paul Cooper who leads into turn one in heat 3, but it's short lived as his engine blows on the second turn. Tai Woffinden streaks away to win and Tommy Allen cleverly blocks all of André's moves. James makes a good start in heat 4 but is in last place by the third turn. Adam Roynon passes Joel up the inside exiting turn 4 to follow Steve Boxall home for another 5-1. Ricky was alongside the Rockets pair on the first bend of heat 5 but Tommy Allen pushes him onto the adverse camber and it's all over. The Rockets lead by 16 points.

Joel battles into the lead in heat 6 but is still sideways exiting turn 4 when Chris Neath has his wheels in-line and the power on to take the lead. Stefan Ekberg repeats the dose on the second turn half a lap later. André fights his way to the front in heat 6 (why wasn't he in the black & white Reg?) and rides a good line ahead of Luke Bowen. Paul is on his spare which is really an Owlerton engine and is way off the pace. Ben chased the Rockets pair for a lap or so in heat 8 before losing touch and James was even slower. Tommy shows first in heat 9 and Tai blasts majestically around Joel on the fourth turn for yet another maximum heat win. André is on a tactical in heat 10 and passes Chris Neath entering turn 3, but Stefan doesn't put a wheel wrong so it finishes as a 4-4. The Rockets lead by 28 points on the night.

The Tigers pair lead heat 11 until the ref calls them back. It seems Ricky was moving at the tapes. Steve Boxall leads away in the restart with Ben and Ricky ahead of Luke Bowen, but only until the third bend when Luke breezes past the two Tigers heat leaders. Ricky retires on the second lap but is able to motor off the track after the race is over. André leads heat 12 but Tai passes him on the inside off the fourth turn. André keeps the pressure on and regains the lead on the second bend of the third lap, but Tai gets alongside him on the inside of the last turn and wins the sprint to the flag by inches. The Rye fans start the celebrations as the championship is theirs. Ricky is involved in another first bend skirmish at the start of heat 13, this time with Stefan and both of them took a tumble. Stefan and Steve make no mistake in the restart and although Joel gave chase he never looked like catching them. Ricky pulls off the track again from last place. Tommy Allen and Luke Bowen are untroubled by the Tigers on their way to another max in heat 14. In the nominated race Tommy cleverly takes André to the point of no return on the apex of the first and second turns (the adverse camber) allowing Tai to nip through on the inside. André tried hard to get back in contention but it was all over anyway.

Fastest time of the evening was 4.4 seconds slower than the lap record (set by Tai three weeks ago) which may say something about the amount of grip on the track, but it was billiard table smooth and consistent so there can be no complaints. Stefan, Tai and Tommy Allen all rode to paid maximums. Steve and Chris both dropped a solitary point to André. The Rockets just didn't have a weak link.

Tommy Allen couldn't cope with the speed at Owlerton two days previously, but maximum men Ricky and Ben looked even more clueless tonight. André had a couple of good rides but was easily duped on the second turn on a couple of occasions. Paul had an engine specially tuned and set-up for this meeting, but it blew a con-rod clear through the casing on the second turn in heat 3. Joel never stopped trying but to be honest didn't look like an ex-Rocket and didn't seem to know which lines to ride. Jordan Frampton made a good fist of it but was up against a tough bunch, while James found it impossible to emulate his win in heat 2.

A big crowd turned out to witness the Rockets becoming the 2007 Premier League Champions. Congratulations to them, they were the best team in the final.

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