SHEFFIELD Tigers opened their Premier Trophy campaign with a controversial 43-33 defeat at Scunthorpe on Friday.

The meeting was abandoned after 12 heats and the result stands - but Tigers riders and management were far from impressed by the way the meeting was handled by referee Mick Bates.

The Owlerton side were prepared to give it a go in dreadful conditions which were clearly unsuitable for proper racing - but the meeting reached the Heat 12 threshold to secure a result which handed the Scorpions maximum points.

Paul Cooper, who has done plenty of laps around the Eddie Wright Raceway for Scunthorpe’s reserve team, notched 13-points from his four outings – including a maximum six-point return from his tactical race on double points.

Tigers never recovered from a nightmare start which saw them slide to 20-3 down after four heats. They even suffered a 5-0 whitewash in the third when Josh Auty, another former Scunthorpe rider, was excluded and in the re-run Richard Hall pulled up with big gremlins.

With rain falling, fans’ favourite Cooper revelled in the conditions with a comprehensive win in Heat 6 and followed this up with another victory two races later to restore some pride on behalf of the Owlerton men.

Auty was nominated for a tactical ride in the 10th but was outpaced by former England international David Howe and with Hall suffering more problems the races was levelled at 4-4 and there was no way back for Sheffield.

SCUNTHORPE: Magnus Karlsson 8, David Howe 7+1, Simon Lambert 7+1, Jerran Hart 6+2, Joel Parsons 5+2, Viktor Bergstrom 5+1, Carl Wilkinson 5.

SHEFFIELD: Paul Cooper 13, Josh Auty 6, Richard Hall 4+1, Hugh Skidmore 4, Ricky Ashworth 4, Josef Franc 1, Arlo Bugeja 1.