Track Condition - poor, dusty slick as per usual. Crowd - average for Rye v Sheffield meetings (500-700). Weather - sunny and warm. Tigers came off one of their better performances of the season on Friday at the OTA in Somerset and went to one of their traditional bogey tracks where they have not seen victory since 2003. Despite the injuries received by Pepe Franc following his fencing by Cory Gathercole on Friday evening he decided to ride, so Sheffield were as per programme. The Rockets were missing Linus Sundstrom and Kyle Hughes and they were replaced by R/R and Cobra's rider Lee Strudwick. Coops won the toss for the Tigers and took gate positions 1 & 3.

Heat 1 saw Ricky (who's bike sounded dreadful all evening) make a tremendous gate and took an easy win followed home by the Rockets with Skidders never far behind, sadly the usual heavy dust was there in the first race. Heat 2 saw the Rockets riders fly out of the gate and despite loads of effort from Coops there was no catching the Rye boys on their own track. Josh made his usual terrible gate in heat 3 but a great ride saw him take 3rd place on the last lap from Luke Bowen. Easy win for Frampton ahead of Pepe. Big shock in heat 4 as Hally made a gate and took a very easy win over Stefan Ekberg. Another easy tapes to flag win for Ash in heat 5 and with Hugh finishing third the Tigers were only 2 points behind.

Drama in heat 6 as 'Mr Big Stuff' (Drye House announcer's nickname for Chris Neath) hits the tapes and goes off 15m. Hally makes the gate in the rerun and wins, Neath takes 2nd after Arlo and Kurt Shields get well out of shape on turn 4 of the second lap but Arlo's 3rd place ties the scores. Rye pair gate in heat 7, Shields is chased down by Josh who eventually passes him and leaves a hole big enough for Pepe to go through. Shields then falls at the end of the race and is ruled out for the rest of the meeting. Excellent gate from Hugh in heat 8 to win easily, sadly for Sheffield, and despite loads of effort Coops cannot get by Strudwick and the scores remain tied. Rockets fly from the gate in heat 9 for an easy 5-1. Heat 10 sees another gate for the Rockets and a repeat of heat 7 with both Tigers passing the impressive Strudwick.

Another tremendous start from Ash in heat 11 and comfortable win ahead of Ekberg. Hugh finishes 3rd and the gap is down to 2 points. The large group of Tigers fans on the first bend were asking could we do the impossible??? Drama at the start in heat 12 with Arlo breaking down on the way to the tapes. Luckily Josh Auty was aware and was soon out with his bike for him, although Arlo did eventually get his own bike started, but well done to Josh for showing team spirit!!! The impressive Frampton took the win ahead of Pepe and Strudwick and the gap is up to 4 points again. Heat 13 saw the meeting go in the Rockets favour as they took a tapes to flag win over Ash whose bike eventually gave up as he crossed the finish line leaving the Rockets 8 points ahead. Hopefully not too big a repair bill for Ash. Controversial first running of heat 14 saw the Rockets make the gate, Josh passed Strudwick on turn three who drifted wide and slid off and to the amazement of most of the stadium, Josh was discluded, which killed the meeting off for the Tigers. In the rerun Coops finally got going and took the win over Luke Bowen and took a bow in front of the Tigers fans after the race. Strudwick retired giving the Tigers a 3-2 and a chance of a point. In an ideal world the Tigers would have wanted Ricky and Josh in heat 15, but down to the fact that Ricky's bike went in heat 13 and Josh hadn't scored enough points, we had to put Hally and Pepe in instead. Rye gated and took an easy 5-1 and gave a final result which didn't reflect the meeting at all, but that seems to be the way it's going for the Tigers this year.

Overall another good effort from the Tigers on one of our bogey tracks, and a shame not to take home a well deserved point. The meeting was one of the best I've seen at Hoddesden with lots of passing and a little controversy. Some strange ideas of watering the track from the Rye track guys as they were watering the adverse camber (where no-one rides) and not doing the riding line, all in all a bit of a waste of time really. Next match on Thursday when hopefully we will have a track that is prepared how our riders want it, not another slick borefest, and our first victory on the board against the Bandits.

Thanks to Chris for this match report.

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