The Sheffield Window Centre Tigers expressed their thanks to the King's Lynn riders and promotion for agreeing to fill the vacancy in the Sheffield fixture list at the eleventh hour after we were let down by Berwick's cosmopolitan collection of riders (I choose not to use the word team).

Sunshine during the day melted the snow which fell overnight but early evening downpours left the track thoroughly sodden. Joel Parsons sped from gate one to win the first heat but Ricky couldn't recover from being shut out on the first bend. John Oliver was an impressive winner of heat 2 but Simon Lambert pulled up making it another shared heat. Kevin Doolan sped to an impressive win in heat 3 but Kozza Smith finished last on his Owlerton debut albeit right on Paul Cooper's back wheel. Lee Smethills and Simon were neck and neck down the back straight in heat 4 with Lee easing ahead into turn three, but Ben Wilson was comprehensively filled in on the second turn and let Rusty Harrison pass him on the next bend and never looked like mounting any challenge. André rounded Shaun Tacey out of turn two and dived past Tomas Topinka on the third bend to lead heat 5 but Paul hit a rut on the fourth turn as he tried to go around Shaun Tacey and only just managed to stay upright. Five shared heats see the scores level.

Ricky led heat 6 with Joel passing John Oliver on the third turn to move into second but the race was stopped when John fell on the fourth turn. Ricky and Joel were again set for a 5-1 in the re-run until Ricky shed a primary chain and took a heavy tumble into the fence. Third time lucky for Joel but Rusty made him work for his points. Heat 7 was re-started and Chris Gay cautioned Kevin for moving at the tapes. He made a blinding start second time to win from Ben with Kozza keeping the pressure on all the way to the line. The visitors now lead by the narrowest of margins. Simon and Shaun trap ahead in heat 8 but Joel is on fire and passes them both on the greasy inside line on turn three. Rusty leads heat 9 until Paul swoops around him on the pits turn with André hard on their heels. Paul then leaves a big gap on the inside of turn one which Rusty uses to regain the lead. André picks off Paul at the start of lap three but cannot catch the leader while John Oliver makes up ground and mounts a challenge for third place. Kevin and Joel exchange the lead of heat 10 for a couple of laps with Joel pulling clear until he too encounters the rut on the fourth turn nearly losing control and two positions into the bargain. Two thirds point in the match and the Stars hold the narrowest of leads.

Ben makes his first decent gate in heat 11 and opens up a comfortable lead. Reserve replacement Lee challenges Tomas for second place for the first couple of laps but the Tigers settle for a 4-2 and take back the lead. Kevin and Simon speed to the front in heat 12 and although André powers around Simon on the second lap he never looked like catching Kevin. The Tigers lead was very short lived! Tomas was the first to show in heat 13 but Ben got the power down to pass him as they entered the back straight. Ricky got alongside Tomas on the inside of the pits turn and completed the pass as they started the second lap but Tomas fought back and passed Ricky on the third turn. Haven't seen the lead change hands like this for quite some time! John comes into heat 14 replacing Kozza, while Eric responds by replacing Sam Martin by Lee Smethills. John is the early leader but Paul had virtually passed him on the fourth turn when John found the rut and wiped Paul out. Paul and his bike hurtled head long into the safety fence in a very nasty looking crash but amazingly he was able to walk back to the pits after being checked out on the track by the paramedics. Minutes later Paul was back out on his spare machine (complete with dirt deflector and fuel) for the three man re-run. Lee Smethills takes the lead and Paul rounds Simon to join his team mate at the front. There followed three laps of the finest team riding with Paul checking over his shoulder on every bend to check where Simon was until he too fell trying a big blast at the end of the third lap. The 5-0 tied up the match for the Tigers and there were sighs of relief all around the terraces. André and Joel got the nod from Eric, while Rob Lyon nominated Tomas and Kevin for what might have been a cracking last heat decider. Kevin went and spoiled things by nudging the tapes and earned himself a 15 metre handicap. André led the re-run with Joel climbing all over Tomas for second place and Kevin quickly making up ground. Kevin tried to get through a gap that didn't exist exiting the fourth turn, clipped the fence and cart wheeled down the track right over the finish line in another horrendous looking fall. Thankfully he too was soon walking back to the pits laughing and joking with riders from both teams but I guess there will be a few aches and pains in the morning for both Kevin and Paul.

The score line suggests a comfortable home win but there was never more than a point between the teams until heat 14. Paul had only scored two points from his first three rides and then wrote off the forks, diamond, exhaust, etc.. in his heat 14 crash. Natalie came to the rescue and will be making the trip back home on Saturday (Garry Flints old engine).

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