TEENAGE Australian Sam Masters broke Sheffield hearts as he roared to his first major Premier League championship.

The Somerset star denied Tigers' Ricky Ashworth a second Premier League Riders title in three seasons in front a big Owlerton crowd.

Ashworth won four of his five qualifying races and crashed in the other one, but missed the start in the all or nothing final, and even though he passed Kauko Nieminen he couldn't catch the flying Masters.

Ashworth said: "I felt really fast all day but I just couldn't get there off gate two. It would have been nice to win it but there will be plenty more of these meetings in the future."

Tigers' other representative Shane Parker needed to win his last ride to make the semi-final, but trailed in last to end a frustrating last appearance in the Premier League's showpiece event.

Finishing order:
1 Sam Masters (Somerset), 2 Ricky Ashworth (Sheffield), 3 Kauko Nieminen (Leicester), 4 Ben Barker (Plymouth), 5 Sebastian Alden (Berwick), 6 Jason Doyle (Newport).

Qualifying Scorers:
Masters 13, Ashworth 12, Barker 11, Nieminen 11, Alden 10, Doyle 10, Rusty Harrison (Workington) 9, Kevin Doolan (Ipswich) 8, Shane Parker (Sheffield) 8, Kevin Wölbert (Edinburgh) 7, Mark Lemon (Newcastle) 5, Joe Screen (Glasgow) 4, Aaron Summers (Redcar) 4, Ben Wilson (Scunthorpe) 4, Jordan Frampton (Rye House) 1, Charlie Gjedde (Newport) 0.
Reserves: Tom Woolley 1, Luke Chessell 0