Tigers co-owner Damien Bates welcomes new competitions for 2022 Premiership season

The Owlerton club will face Belle Vue and Wolverhampton in their season opening League Cup group which adds four more meetings.

And it’s been confirmed that every track will host a round of the Premiership Pairs with Tigers set to track Jack Holder and Adam Ellis to make them one of the pre-season favourites.

It means fans will have more speedway to enjoy next year despite the league only tracking six teams for a second successive season – something Bates wants to see addressed from 2023 onwards.

He said: “Last season with the Premiership just running the league and play-offs was fine because we didn’t start until mid-May. Here at Sheffield we didn’t host a home meeting until June.

“But there has been a general acceptance that for 2022 we need more meetings at Premiership level which is why we have come up with the extra competition.

“The Premiership Pairs will be an exciting addition through the season, there’s a round at every club and that’s an extra fixture so each club will stage a minimum of 13 meetings.

“At Sheffield we are looking at an open meeting or challenge match to add to that and then if we progress into the play-offs we could end up with 16 meetings plus Todd Kurtz’ testimonial.

“I’ve already said six teams isn’t ideal but we have a league of stable clubs who are all well run by professional people and there’s a lot to be said for that in these challenging times.

“I want to see the Premiership develop going forward and I’m pretty sure everyone else does, I’m sure a lot of attention will be on the revival of Oxford in the Championship and the development work at Swindon.

“It would be good to get another two teams in – and 10 in total would be my preference eventually.”

Meanwhile, Retro Speedway have launched their latest DVD, ‘Memories of Sheffield Speedway’.

Spanning five hours and 40 minutes and covering the period up to the mid-90s, the triple-disk set features interviews with Tigers legends Guy Allott, Reg Wilson and Doug Wyer as well as contributions from Shawn Moran, Dave Morton, Nicky Allott, team manager Eric Boocock and promoter Neil Machin.

Other greats featured include Aussie ace Jim Airey, 1974 Knockout Cup winner and now West Australia-based Craig Pendlebury, the late Kelly Moran and 60s star Clive Featherby, plus more.

Producer Tony McDonald said: “We originally advertised this DVD as a four-hour double-disk set but we had so much good material that we decided to extend it by an extra hour and 40 minutes.”

To order the DVD, visit www.retro-speedway.com or phone Susie McDonald on 01708 734 502.

Retro Speedway also have five free copies to give away as part of a competition for Star readers.

To enter, email [email protected] with your answer to the following question: who is the current Tigers team manager?