SHEFFIELD all but booked their place in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-offs despite losing out 48-42 in a last heat decider at Ipswich.
The Tigers successfully claimed the aggregate point though moving them six points ahead of fifth placed King’s Lynn – but the South Yorkshire side have a superior race points difference over the Stars.
It was an a sterling effort from Sheffield who took the reigning champions down to the wire, despite operating Rider Replacement for injured No.1 Jack Holder.
Sheffield conceded two 5-1s in the opening three races with the Tigers denied a maximum of their own in Heat Two with Luke Killeen passed on the line by home reserve Kevin Juhl Pedersen whilst Jye Etheridge took the chequered flag out front.
After a last place in the opener as rider replacement, Josh Pickering took his learning points to help him win a shared Heat Four before Leon Flint led a 3-3 in the fifth.
Heat Six saw Pickering and Etheridge link up for a 5-1 with the latter producing a cracking move to squeeze through the middle of the home pairing of Richard Lawson and Adam Ellis off bend two of the opening lap.
Two further shared heats followed before the Tigers levelled with a 4-2 as Pickering and Etheridge combined for another heat advantage.
Killeen and Etheridge were used as rider replacement and as a reserve replacement as they took the minor placings in a shared Heat 11 before Holder and Etheridge took second and third in a Heat 12 3-3 with the scores still tied.
A fourth straight share of the spoils followed in a terrific Heat 13; Holder was solid in second whilst Pickering eventually took third after a brilliant ding-dong battle with Lawson with plenty of overtaking on several occasions.
The Witches nipped back ahead by two points with a race to spare – but Flint battled superbly to get by Juhl Pedersen to split the Dane and Brennan on the third lap.
Sheffield required a heat advantage in the tense finale, but the hosts made the better gates to edge the tight contest.
Tigers team manager Simon Stead said: “Approaching the meeting, having not being able to successfully get a guest in, I’ll be honest, I was looking at making sure that we took the aggregate point home as being the most important thing.
“But full credit to the lads, even more so after a little bit of a slowish start, they went out there and really attacked the meeting.
“The six lads and their mechanics all really worked together as one behind the scenes and it was one big group effort once again.
“We really got into a flow, and yes we may have just come up short in the end on the night, but we did more than enough to win the aggregate point and for me, there were plenty of positives we can take away once again with a little bit more much needed momentum with us.”
Sheffield can mathematically secure their play-off place when they host Northampton in their final home regular league fixture of the season on Thursday (September 10, 7.30pm).
IPSWICH 48: Danny King 13, Tobiasz Musielak 12+2, Adam Ellis 8+1, Tom Brennan 6+2, Richard Lawson 4+1, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 3, Jason Edwards 2.
SHEFFIELD 42: Leon Flint 11, Josh Pickering 10+1, Jye Etheridge 8+3, Chris Holder 6+1, Luke Killeen 5, Anders Rowe 2+1, Jack Holder R/R.
Sheffield win the aggregate point 93-87
Photo credit: STEPHEN WALLER
