SHEFFIELD Tigers have got their Premier Trophy campaign off to a flying start with a 57-36 win over Scunthorpe at Owlerton.
Ricky Ashworth was top man for the Sheffield Window Centre-backed side with a hat-trick of wins in his 12+1 score.
And team boss Eric Boocock was delighted with the contribution from the rest of his side as they sped into an early lead and never looked back.
Two 5-1s in the opening six heats, both from Ashworth and lively partner Joel Parsons, saw Tigers open up a 23-13 gap from which Scunthorpe were never likely to recover.
But they did have their moments, especially when former Owlerton racer Richard Hall took a tactical double win ahead of home skipper Andre Compton in heat 9, Compton almost coming to grief as he tried a hard charge around the outside on the second lap.
Said Boocock: "It was a good start for us. The pleasing thing was that all of our riders contributed and we won the races when it mattered."
TIGERS: Ricky Ashworth 12+1, Joel Parsons 11+2, Lee Smethills 10, Andre Compton 9+1, Ben Wilson 8, Paul Cooper 6+2, Sam Martin 1. SCUNTHORPE: Magnus Karlsson 11, Richard Hall 10, Andrew Moore 7, Benji Compton 6+1, Viktor Bergstrom 2, Carl Wilkinson 0, Byron Bekker 0.
*The sides now have it all to do again at Normanby Road tonight. Both sides will be unchanged.
