BIG WIN AT SHEFFIELD - BUT AT A COST

A 50-40 win at Owlerton tonight takes us to the top of the Premier League table on the eve of the visit to Armadale by second placed Somerset, but we lost unlucky Mitchell Davey who has a broken leg after flying over the fence in heat 2.

Mitchell was pressing inside the home reserves on the third corner of lap three, but clipped the rear wheel of Oliver Greenwood, which sent him at high speed into the fence.

There was a lengthy the delay while Mitchell was seen to and the fence was repaired, and it was at least 8:45 when the match resumed. Sheffield had taken the led in heat 1 when Andre Compton (who appeared to be moving) gave Craig Cook what turned out to be his only defeat of the night.

Tigers held a two-point lead until heat 6 when the position was reversed due to a 5-1 from Derek Sneddon and Claus Vissing over home guest Josh Auty.

That was a measure of how influential in this match our no. 7 turned out to be. He took seven rides and said "I proved to Craig Cook I'm fit enough and don't need to join him in the gym! Mind you I'll be sleeping all the way home."

We weren't firing on all cylinders, because it took Max Fricke a couple of rides to get up to speed, and in the case of Jozsef Tabaka he had to switch to his Armadale machine for his third ride before he got amongst the points.

Claus Vissing was unfortunate to hit ignition problems after scoring paid 6 from his first two rides. He rode one of Cook's machines in heat 9 and had to go off 15 metres after exceeding two minutes, but we were fortunate to share this race when Compton stopped while leading.

Claus was back on his own machine for heat 13 but it was far from right.

Theo Pijper filled his usual important role with 8 points, winning heat six, but the real surprise packet was obviously Mr Sneddon, scoring what he believes was his second highest score ever.

He won heats 2, 6 (over Auty), 12 (over Wells) and 14 (over Compton), riding fast and wide and following Craig's instructions to "get my back wheel in the dirt!"

Cook of course was immaculate after that heat one reverse and killing off all challengers by the back straight each time.

The boys now come back up the road for another tough test at home with an NL guest to be found for Mitchell.