Sheffield Tigers speedway: Late surge secures Sheffield victory over Belle Vue Aces

The Tru Plant Tigers finished 10 points clear in the end after trailing for a large part of the meeting to the Sports Insure Premiership leaders at Owlerton. But it had looked unlikely at one stage with the Aces leading for most of the first half of the meeting.

Tigers, who were operating rider replacement for the injured Lewis Kerr, started well with a 5-1 success for Jack Holder and skipper Kyle Howarth in heat one, in a race that included Dan Bewley for the Aces, who had won the Swedish Grand Prix just days ago,

But Belle Vue struck back quickly, with 5-1 heat advantages in heats two and three, giving the away side a lead that they held on to until heat nine.

But Tigers levelled the scores in heat 10, with a 4-1 success for Holder and Howarth putting the scores at 30-30.

But consecutive 5-1s for Sheffield in heat 13, from Holder and top scorer Tobiasz Musielak, and heat 14, from Josh Pickering and Howarth, turned the meeting on its head, and secured the victory for Sheffield.

Musielak then won the last heat ahead of Brady Kurtz, with Holder in third, to secure a 50-40 victory.

Tigers boss Simon Stead said the meeting was as tough as he expected. He added: “We knucked down, finished the meeting strong, as we have been, and made it a reasonable scoreline for us to take to Belle Vue. I’m happy with that, I’m happy with the fight we showed because it was tough early doors – there were a couple of issues for Kyle with his bike, and for Josh. They worked hard to rectify that and both finished really strong. And Jack and Toby were as good as ever. But a team performance.”

Tigers are at home again on Monday, against Wolverhampton.

Sheffield 50: Tobiasz Musielak 14, Jack Holder 12(1), Josh Pickering 10, Kyle Howarth 6(3), Adam Ellis 6, Dan Gilkes 2

Belle Vue 40: Jaimon Lidsey 10, Brady Kurtz 7(1), Norick Blodorn 7, Tom Brennan 6(3), Connor Bailey 5(1), Dan Bewley 3(2), Charles Wright 2(1)