SHEFFIELD completed a disappointing weekend with a 56-37 Premier Trophy defeat at Workington.

It was hard result to swallow for the Tigers after such a bright start to the meeting, but they will have been boosted to see Ricky Ashworth back in the points after he failed to score in last night’s cup match at Edinburgh.

Ashworth scored 13 points but apart from Josh Auty’s 7+1 contribution there was little support for the Sheffield skipper.

The Tigers actually led early on courtesy of a Chris Mills and Josh Auty 5-1 in heat 2 and Ritchie Hawkins and Joel Parsons looked set to repeat the feat in heat 3. Unfortunately the Australian fell on the third lap and in the re-run Hawkins conceded a 4-2 to the home pair of Adrian Rymel and Charles Wright.

This seemed to spark a Comets revival as a series of heat advantages over the next few races catapulted them into a 36-24 lead following the completion of heat 10.

The previously unbeaten Ashworth had a successful tactical ride win for double points ahead of former Tiger Andre Compton in heat 11 and with Paul Cooper third, the ensuing 7-2 did momentarily reduce the deficit to 38-31.

Unfortunately for Sheffield that was as close as they would get for the rest of the night. The home side out-scored the visitors 18-4 in the final four races and the eventual nineteen-point winning margin ensured they picked up the maximum three trophy points on offer.

WORKINGTON 56: Andre Compton 13+1, Adrian Rymel 12, Richard Lawson 11+1, John Branney 9+2, Kevin Doolan 8+1, Charles Wright 3+1, Craig Cook 0.

SHEFFIELD 37: Ricky Ashworth 13, Josh Auty 7+1, Richard Hall 5, Ritchie Hawkins 4, Chris Mills 4, Joel Parsons 2+1, Paul Cooper 2.