Key:+ = from 15m handicap,  * = Tactical ride for double points,  ! = Tactical substitution from 15m
SHEFFIELD SPEEDWAY MATCH REPORTS 2011
Workington 'Comets' v SHEFFIELD WINDOW CENTRE 'Tigers' Premier League 9 April

Referee: Daryl Clark

0102030405 0607080910 1112131415 Tot+Bp
1. James Wright 7.82 0 3 3 2' 8+1
2. Richard Lawson 5.25 3 1 2 1 7
3. Tomas Topinka 7.64 1 2' 2 3 8+1
4. Rusty Harrison 6.92 3 3 1' 3 3 13+1
5. Peter Kildemand 6.35 2 3 3 3 0 11
6. Charles Wright

3.38

2 - 1' 2' 1 2' 8+3
7. Gary Irving   0 0 fx - - 0
  3 2 4 2 5 4 3 3 3 4 5 4 5 5  3
Workington 'Comets' 3 5 9 11 16 20 23 26 29 33 38 42 47  52  55
Sheffield 'Tigers' 3 7 9 13 14 16 19 22 25 27 28 32 33 34 37
 Eric Boocock 3 4 2 4 1 2 3 3 3 2 1 4 1 1  3
1. Shane Parker 7.95 1' 0 x 1 1' 3+2
2. Hugh Skidmore 5.69 2 1 3 1 7
3. Ricky Ashworth © 7.77 2 1' 2 *4 9+1
4. Emiliano Sanchez 6.64  0 2 0 *1 3
5. Josh Auty 7.69 3 2 3 0 2 10
6. Ashley Birks 3.00 1 0 0 - 1
7. Simon Lambert 3.47 3 1 0 0 0 4
Track record: 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15

64.1

64.5

63.9

63.5

63.6

64.1

awd

66.0

65.7

65.8

65.8

65.8

65.3

65.4

65.6

After the good start to the season, the Sheffield Window Centre Tigers went to Dodge City with high hopes of getting a positive result. Ashley Birks declared himself as fit to ride after his falls on Thursday and both teams were as per programme.
Track looked to have a thin layer of grip on top of a slick surface. Ricky won the toss and took gates 1 and 3.
Heat 1 saw an electric gate from Richard Lawson followed by Hugh Skidmore, Shane Parker and James Wright and that was it after the first corner.Rambo made the gate in Heat 2 followed by Charles Wright and Ashley Birks and again the race was over after the first corner and Tigers take a 2 point lead. Rusty Harrison rolls at the start of heat 3 and is not penalised when Tigers make the gate and all four are brought back. Ash makes the gate in the rerun but drifts too wide on the first bend and is passed by Rusty. Tomas Topinka does the same manoeuvre to Emiliano on the next lap and the scores are tied.
Peter Kildemand makes an electric gate in Heat 4 but is soon passed at the end of lap one by Josh Auty who goes on to take a huge win. Rambo hangs onto third from Gary Irving and Tigers retake the lead.
Heat 5 saw the excellent pairing of Topinka and Harrison gate and gain an easy 5-1 over Skiddy and Parks and the Comets take the lead.

Josh makes the gate in heat 6 but drifts wide on the first bend and James Wright takes full advantage and goes on to win despite huge pressure from Josh, Lawson takes third and the Comets extend their lead to 4 points.
Heat 7 sees Kildemand away and clear in the first corner followed by Chico and Ricky, Gary Irving gradually catches Ricky up and attempts a pass on the last corner but makes a mess of it and knocks Ricky off and is excluded and race awarded.
Skiddy make the gate in Heat 8 Lawson and Charles Wright follow him around the first corner and the race finishes that way and the gap remains at 4.
The meeting finally comes to life in Heat 9 after Topinka and Harrison make the gate, they are hotly pursued by Josh Auty who proceeds to pass both riders during the race, total quality from Auty and as good as Shane Parker's Heat 15 at Owlerton on Thursday.
Ricky makes a tremendous swoop around the outside of turn one into the lead of Heat 10 he is then pursued by James Wright who throws everything at Ricky and gets him up the inside of turn 4 on the last lap. Lawson 3rd and Emiliano disappointingly at the back and the Comets extend their lead to 6 points.

Heat 11 sees Kildemand gate into the lead over Shane Parker, Parker chases and passes Kildemand into turn 3, Kildemand tries to repass Shane and falls off. The referee amazingly excludes Shane and the meeting swings massively in the Comets favour. Kildemand and Charles Wright make no mistake over Skidmore in the rerun and Comets go 10 clear.
Heat 12 sees Sheffield's first Tactical Ride of the season after 8 meetings. Ricky takes the TR but can do nothing against the fast gating Topinka despite a good effort to catch him. Charles Wright takes 3rd place over Rambo and the gap remains at 10.
Heat 13 sees a tremendous gate by the Comets, Shane tries everything to pass on all 4 laps but to no avail and the lead extends to 14. Tigers have no option but to put Emiliano on a TR in Ht14 but hopes weren't high of a result by the Tigers fans in attendance, they were proved right as the Comets scorched into the lead from the gate and the gap goes to 18.
James Wright gets away in Heat 15 followed by Josh and Shane and the race finishes that way with an 18 point win for Workington.
Tigers made some good gates in this meeting but were guilty of leaving too many holes up the fast inside line and allowing the Workington riders through.
Josh rode well again for an hard earned 10 points and he was backed up by Skiddy and Ricky but the others were not at their best. Ricky and Emiliano should change in the team order so that Ricky covers Ht14, I believe this give away a strong tactical advantage for us. So its back down to earth with a bump for the Tigers after the strong start to the season and the Premier League pace setting Rebels to visit on Thursday, should be interesting to see how the Tigers bounce back!

Thanks to Chris Wells for this match report.

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