THE Sheffield Tigers kept their Premier League Championship Play-Off hopes alive with a well-deserved 46-43 win at Newport on Sunday afternoon.

It was a good performance from Reg Wilson’s men, who were up against a Newport team that had crushed Berwick 61-32 on their own track less than twenty-four-hours earlier. Ricky Ashworth and Andre Compton both headed the Sheffield scorechart with 11 points apiece and Joel Parsons and guest Ben Powell gave good support to the big two, each scoring 7 (paid 8)

Ashworth and Ben Wilson got the Tigers off to a good start with a 5-1 in heat 1, but the Wasps quickly hit back over the next few races to take a 13-11 lead after four races. Ashworth and Wilson then levelled things up with a 4-2 in heat 5 and a 5-1 from Joel Parsons and James Cockle in heat 6 saw Sheffield take a 20-16 lead. Mechanical problems for Powell in heat 8 enabled Newport to sneak a 4-2, only for the match to turn further in Wasps favour with a 5-1 from Michal Rajkowski and Tony Atkin in heat 9.

Compton and Cooper restored the Tigers lead with a 5-1 in heat 10, but Newport regained the advantage after an eventful heat 11 in which referee Ronnie Allan excluded three Sheffield riders. In total, there were no less than five re-runs, during which Wilson and Powell were both excluded for bringing down Nick Simmons in separate incidents and Ashworth was also thrown out for delaying the start, despite not actually touching the tapes. This left the Wasps duo of Chris Schramm and Simmons to eventually ride unopposed for a 5-0 which edged them back into a 34-31 lead.

The Tigers, however, showed their bite and immediately hit back in heat 12 with a 5-1 from Compton and Powell, and with a another five-pointer from Ashworth and Parsons in heat 13, they held a five-point lead with two races remaining (41-36).

Powell continued his impressive guest showing for Sheffield by winning a shared heat 14 ahead of Atkin and Simmons, so with the Tigers leading 44-39 with one race remaining, victory was virtually assured. The win was confirmed moments later with Ashworth picking up two points in heat 15.

NEWPORT: Chris Schramm 10, Michal Rajkowski 8+1, Tony Atkin 8, Nick Simmons 6+2, Barry Burchatt 5+1, Tom Hedley 5, Sebastian Truminski 1

SHEFFIELD: Ricky Ashworth 11, Andre Compton 11, Joel Parsons 7+1, Ben Powell 7+1, Ben Wilson 5+1, Paul Cooper 3+2, James Cockle 2+1