Speedway: Sheffield bounce back with biggest victory of the season as King's Lynn suffer fresh injury blow
Jack Holder’s return for action for Sheffield marked the team’s biggest win of the season, against a King’s Lynn side which suffered a fresh injury blow
With Jack Holder back at number one, Sheffield also brought in Tom Brennan as a guest in place of three time former World Champion Tai Woffinden.
And with injured Woffinden among the spectators in the pits, the Tru7 Group Tigers racked up a 58-31 victory in the Rowe Motor Oil Premiership at Owlerton.
King’s Lynn had injury problems of their own, having lost their number one Tobiasz Musielak for the rest of the season, and operating rider replacement for Nicolai Klindt, also out of the season because of injury.
And their problems got worse after heat three, when Benjamin Basso and Josh Pickering collided on the first bend, with Basso withdrawing from the meeting with a thigh injury.
Sheffield, already two points ahead at the stage, moved further clear as the meeting progressed, recording five, 5-1, heat advantages. They also recorded a 5-0 heat advantage in the seventh race of the evening, a heat in which only winner Chris Holder, and second placed Jason Edwards crossed the line, after both visitors, Jan Kvech and Patryk Wojdylo, suffered mechanical problems.
Chris Holder scored a 12 point maximum from his four rides, with guest Brennan securing a paid maximum.
Perhaps the most exciting heat of the night was heat 13, where the Holder brothers found themselves staring at the wrong end of a 5-1 defeat after the first coupe of of laps, before both managed to pass Niels Kristian Iversen and Justin Sedgmen, to seal a 5-1 in Sheffield’s favour instead, Chris winning ahead of Jack in second.
Then there was excitement at the end of heat 15. Jack Holder had led from the gate, and Josh Pickering passed Iverson practically on the finish line to secure another 5-1.
The victory was Sheffield’s first win in three meetings, after defeats at Oxford and Leicester in meetings which saw them miss both Jack Holder and Woffinden.
It saw Sheffield move up into second place in the league table, ahead of Belle Vue, who lost 53-37 at Oxford.
Sheffield: Jack Holder 12+1, Chris Holder 12, Josh Pickering 11+3, Tom Brennan 10+2, Jason Edwards 6+2, Kyle Howarth 4, Dan Gilkes 3+2
Kings Lynn: Niels-Kristian Iversen 13, Jan Kvech 9+1, Anders Rowe 7+1, Patryk Wojdylo 1+1, Justin Sedgmen 1, Benjamin Basso 0, Nicolai Klindt
- RELATED: Fox hails crucial video review as Steelers book cup semi-final place
- RELATED: 'Gutted': Popular Sheffield United themed café put up for sale
- RELATED: Steelers await injury news ahead of crucial Challenge Cup clash
- RELATED: Eddie Hearn completes 5k in Sheffield ahead of Dalton Smith world title bout