SHEFFIELD are through to the Play-Off Final after a dramatic night of racing at Owlerton.
The Tigers looked to be facing mission impossible as they set about pulling back a twenty-eight-point deficit from last week’s first leg in Scotland, but they completely tore apart the Premier League Champions and clinched the tie in a last heat decider.
The Yorkshiremen responded to a public dressing-down from promoter Neil Machin by racing into an early 16-8 lead, and another 5-1 in heat 6 from Josh Auty and Hugh Skidmore gave them further hope of pulling the semi-final back in their favour.
Edinburgh’s Kalle Katajisto was then nominated as a tactical ride in heat 7, but the previously flying Finn was squeezed out by the home pairing of Ricky Ashworth and Simon Lambert as they romped to another 5-1.
A 4-2 immediately followed in heat 8 and when Richard Hall and Lambert took full-advantage of an Andrew Tully exclusion in race 9, they led 38-16 and the big fightback looked to be on.
But back came Edinburgh with a 4-2 of their own in heat 10, and Ryan Fisher’s double-point second place behind Ashworth in heat 11 kept Sheffield’s lead to twenty-points.
However, two brilliant Tigers maximums in heats 13 and 14 saw the teams locked together on aggregate as the tie entered a dramatic finale.
And when the tapes rose in the decider, skipper Auty led from tapes-to-flag from Kevin Wolbert and Ashworth kept Fisher at bay for the match-winning third place.
SHEFFIELD 61: Josh Auty 12+1, Richard Hall 12+1, Ricky Ashworth 12+1, Simon Lambert 11+4, Hugh Skidmore 9+1, Ricky Wells 5+2, Josef Franc R/R
EDINBURGH 31: Ryan Fisher 10, Kevin Wolbert 8, Kalle Katajisto 5, William Lawson 3+1, Matthew Wethers 2, Andrew Tully 2, Ashley Morris 1
