Title Partner
At last we completed a 15-heat match, and reached a 40-point total at one of the toughest away venues in the division.
After watching the first three heats it seemed unlikely we would finish with such a total. Heat 1 was a home 5-1 though Theo came remarkably close to catching Ashworth on the line after making up a lot of ground.
Derek held second for much of heat 2, with Cooper leading, and eventually Benji Compton came through to second only to fall on the final turn. Derek swerved neatly to avoid him but Sean took a tumble.
Our pair trailed well behind in heat 3 and at this point we had gained only gift points. However Rusty sorted that in a remarkable heat 4 in which he fought out a tough duel, not with Andre Compton but with Paul Cooper. Rusty passed the home reserve but then made an error, dropping back to second again. With a win in the bag, Cooper lifted leaving the final turn and crashed, leaving us sitting on a 4-2 over Andre!
Benji Compton was ruled out of the meeting after that heat 2 crash, so Cooper was lined up for 7 rides. The race winning habit continued as Theo rode a beautiful race to lead heat 5 all the way from the hard-charging Legault.
A slow gate for Rusty in heat 6 left him chasing, but once he switched from inside to out he sped round Ben Wilson to grab a second.
Matthew and William pushed Cooper to the back in heat 7, and of course Cooper was quickly out again for heat 8. No TR chance as we were only 8 down.
Theo once again showed his liking for this circuit with an impeccable ride, and with Cooper at the back again we had our second race advantage.
Rusty took our race win tally to four by beating Legault, again having to work hard to subdue the lively Canadian.
Ben Wilson has been on excellent form recently, so William and Matthew did well to keep him pointless in heat 10 - and Matt did it from the back.
Henrik managed to pick up a point in heat 11 by beating Cooper in another shared race, and poor old Paul was last again as heat 12 finished the same way. Last year in this match we led at heat 12, this year we were six down - probably better than expected.
Sheffield are of course especially strong in the closing stages, and they did indeed take 5-1's in heats 13 and 15 - though Andre Compton had to come from the back both times.
In between we finally got a TR chance, sending William out in black-and-white - and he led the heat! He couldn't hold off Legault but we did score a 5-3 advantage with - you guessed it - Paul Cooper at the back.
Theo held second in heat 15 for a bit before feeling the force of a determined Andre overtake. Nevertheless, 40 points at Sheffield was the target set by match previewer Dennis Wallace - and we made it.
There are few teams (if any) who relish a visit to Sheffield or who have great expectations of a result, so much of a specialists' tack is the big, wide, fast Owlerton bowl. The object of the exercise is more often than not one of damage limitation.
This year Sheffield are without Sean Wilson, for so long their captain and inspiration, but it has not affected their home dominance at all on the basis of the two home matches they have raced this season. It took Berwick until heat 14 to provide a race winner in a 21 point defeat and last week Newcastle, one of the more fancied teams this year, were well and truly hammered in a 64-30 defeat during which they could not provide a single race winner although they have one of the strongest heat leader trios in the Premier League.
Even away from home Sheffield have looked impressive losing by only two points at Berwick and seven at Glasgow last weekend. This week it's Edinburgh's turn to face the Yorkshire music. Some of the home fans are already clamouring for a better display from their team's opponents than they have witnessed so far. We can only hope that we can oblige.
However, if inspiration were needed, we only have to look at the match last year when we gave the Tigers a real fright with a spirited display which saw us lose by a narrow margin in controversial circumstances. Had things gone our way we might well have returned with a tangible reward.
Sheffield's strength is all down the line. Their riders clearly have machinery well set up for their home circuit which gives them a huge advantage. The real surprise packet at home has been the form of Kyle Legault who has graduated from the reserve berth last year to near unbeatable heat leader this year. When Andre Compton is beaten round Sheffield it's almost headline news these days and with consistently strong back-up from Ricky Ashworth and Ben Wilson there just doesn't seem to be a weak link in the team. Emiliano Sanchez has moved from Hull to join the Tigers and the reserves Benji Compton and Paul Cooper have so far completely dominated their opposition counterparts.
It doesn't sound good does it? However hope springs eternal etc. and with the right attitude and a bit of luck you never know. No matter how well the Monarchs ride they will need to have fast engines to challenge the home riders. If they mange that then the prospects will look so much brighter.
This is probably a very pessimistic view of the match but realistically a truly excellent performance would be to hit the 40 point mark. It's all very well to gasp at Newcastle's low total of last week but there is every prospect of a few such hammerings for other teams round Sheffield this season and we can console ourselves that we don't have a huge target to reach to avoid the current opposition low score round the place after Thursday's match.
Friday 7th April 2006, 10:00am
Sheffield is a tough place to visit and most teams would settle for a score of 40 plus a chance to take the aggregate bonus.
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