Speedway: Erik Riss takes Riders’ Championship crown

Erik Riss claimed his first Championship Riders’ Individual title after roaring to victory in Sheffield.
By Nigel Pearson
Published 1st Sep 2019, 21:31 BST
Updated 1st Sep 2019, 23:43 BST

Supporters from all eleven Championship clubs flocked to Owlerton to watch the league’s top talent showcase their abilities in the Championship’s penultimate showcase event of the season.2018 champion Craig Cook struggled with illness and was forced to withdraw after three point-less programmed rides.After scoring an 18 point maximum on the same circuit just a few weeks ago, Aussie ace Sam Masters topped the score charts with 12 points alongside Leicester star Ryan Douglas.Home favourite Danny King turned around a slow start to the evening to win two of his final three races and book his place in the final.King got the better of Richard Lawson in a closely fought Heat 10 to take his first race win of the night.In his following heat, the Sheffield star got squeezed out wide in a tight first corner but managed to salvage third place heading into his final race.A tapes-to-flag victory in Heat 17 came just at the right time for King who got the better of the hard-charging Chris Harris.The Window Centre Tigers suffered last heat heartache at Eastbourne on Saturday night - conceding a 5-1 in the final heat to agonisingly fall to a 46-44 defeat at Arlington.Boss Simon Stead vowed his side would ‘fight until the very end’ in their search for play-off glory.Stead said: “We have an obligation to the Sheffield supporters and to the league to fight until it’s mathematically impossible and being able to bring in Broc in at reserve on tracks he goes well at proved a massive advantage to us.“We’re still in the mix and we can take plenty of positives from this into our final few meetings of the season.”CHAMPIONSHIP RIDERS’ INDIVIDUAL, SheffieldSCORES: Ryan Douglas 12, Sam Masters 12, Erik Riss 12, Jake Allen 10, Danny King 10, Adam Ellis 9, Richard Lawson 9, Chris Harris 9, Rasmus Jensen 8, Nick Morris 6, Todd Kurtz 6, Zaine Kennedy 5, Steve Worrall 5, Jye Etheridge 4, Josh Auty 2, Joe Lawlor (res) 1, Tom Woolley (res) 0, Craig Cook 0.SEMI-FINAL: Riss, King, Allen, EllisFINAL: Riss, King, Douglas, Masters

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