Meet the SHEFFIELD 'Tigers' 2023

David was a member of the League championship winning Glasgow team in 2011 before joining Berwick for the next three seasons helping them to victory in the Four Team Championship in 2012. David joined the Tigers in 2015 and thrilled the crowd with some great moves. He was caught up in the horror crash in heat 15 at Rye House when Ricky took a heavy tumble right in front of him and David himself fractured his hip. Thankfully David returned to track action in June and continued in the same exciting style.

David rode for Redcar in 2016, Swindon & Kroszno in 2017 and 18, and both Ipswich and Swindon in 2019. He was also World Longtrack Champion in both 2018 and 2019 and won Sheffield's Grand 90th Anniversary meeting ahead of Ryan Douglas, Danny King & Rory Schlein.

Masarna (Sweden) and Bydgoszcz (Poland) were his clubs in 2020, continuing with Masarna in 2021. He switched to Leszno (Poland)and Indianerna (Sweden)in 2022 and rejoins both Sheffield and Bydgoszcz for 2023.

David scored 8 in our away win in Manchester, and won heat 1 at home to King's Lynn in the third fastest EVER time around Owlerton. Sadly his form then nose dived and following three consecutive away matches when he failed to score (despite scoring 12 in Poland) and was replaced by Josh Pickering.

Current average from official fixtures in 2023 = 4.77

Jason joins the Tigers to replace Dan Gilkes who suffered a broken wrist in a crash at Peterborough. Jason first rode for Eastbourne in 2018 helping them to win both K.O.Cup and League titles. He joined Mildenhall in 2019 and also Plymouth in 2021.

He became the rising star at King's Lynn in 2022 with Championship appearances for Redcar and showed his liking for Owlerton in May this year winning heat 4 of the Stars match ahead of Tobiasz Musielak! Jason lost his place in the Stars team to Anders Rowe in June but recently scored 10 including two race wins in Redcar's away win at Plymouth.

His first appearance for the Tigers was as a guest at Leicester when he recorded 2 race wins in our glorious away win.

Current average from official fixtures in 2023 = 3.50

Adam was born in France to British parents who run a bar over there. His first clubs in 2013 were the IOW and Ipswich. Continuing with the Witches he moved to Lakeside in 2014 and then Lakeside and Birmingham in 2015 winning both the 4TT and League Cup. More success followed in 2016 winning the Elite Shield with Poole and the KO Cup with Eastbourne. He helped Swindon win the League in 2017, and then the Elite Shield in 2018 and both the League and KO Cup in 2019!

Adam joined his ex-Swindon team mate Troy Batchelor with the Tigers and also signed for Championship side Scunthorpe in 2021. He beat Max Fricke for the last podium position in the SGP qualifier in Terenzano, Italy and then top scored with 14 from 5 rides as GB won the European Pairs Qualifier at Debrecen in Hungary ahead of both Denmark and Slovenia. Adam became British Champion in August top scoring with 13 points and defeating home riders Dan Bewley and Charles Wright in the final at Belle Vue. Adam had surgery on his injured shoulder during the winter break.

Fit and raring to go Adam rejoined the Tigers for 2022 and qualified for the European Championship. He was given the Cardiff GP wildcard following the British Grand Prix being abandoned, but was unable to ride after dislocating his shoulder following a fall in practice.

Adam has been busy traveling during the closed season. In Australia he won the Oceania Championship at Gilmore in late December, qualifying for the finals with 14 points with Tai Woffinden on 15 and Jason Doyle 13. He led the final until Jason passed him on the last lap, but re-took the lead exiting the last bend to win by half a bike length. He then traveled to America where he rode for the "Rest of the World" side winning the second-half individual event.

Official meetings average in 2023 = 5.46

Dan first rode for Kent in 2019. He appeared in both leagues for the Kings and Royals in 2021 before joining the Plymouth Gladiators in 2022. He rode four meetings in the Championship before picking up a serious injury at Scunthorpe.

Riding at reserve in his four meetings, two at home and away at Redcar and Scunthorpe he scored 34 points (plus 4 bonus) from 22 rides giving him a 6.91 average (6.18 excluding bonus points). Not bad for a reserve.

Plymouth being one of the smallest tracks in the country Dan might find Owlerton a bit of a handful but I'm sure the home fans will get right behind him!

Dan's season came to an abrupt halt with a clash with Jordan Jenkins at Peterborough in August when he suffered a broken wrist.

Official meetings average from 2023 = 3.57

Elder brother of Jack, Chris was World Champion back in 2012. His first British clubs were the Isle of Wight in 2006 and Oxford in 2007. He joined Poole in 2008 and rode for them for the following 9 years before joining King's Lynn in 2017.

Chris was Australian Champion in 2008, 10, 11, 12 and 14. Rode in the Grand Prix from 2010 to 2018 winning twice in Britain and won the Czech Golden Helmet in 2014.

With Adam Ellis struggling the Tigers looked to Chris to help them in the play-offs.

Current average from official fixtures in 2023 = 7.45

Brother of James and 2012 World Champion Chris, Jack first rode in Britain for Plymouth in 2015. He doubled up with Peterborough and Poole in 2017, moved to Somerset in 2018 and finished the 2019 season at the top of the Premiership with the Poole Pirates and second only to Brady Kurtz in their averages.

Jack had a good start to 2022 winning his 4th New South Wales Championship from Sam Masters, Josh Pickering and Ben Cook after suffering engine problems in his first ride at Kurri Kurri, and he returned to Polish Ekstraliga action with Torun.

With the Russian riders excluded from the Grand Prix series Jack was offered one of the places but has found the opposition quite tough finishing the series in 12th place. He won the GP qualifier at Debrecen in Hungary with a 15 point clean sweep, and claimed his 2023 GP place with a rostrum finish in Glasgow beating Max Fricke in a run-off.

Over the winter Jack won his 5th consecutive Championship at Kurri Kurri beating his brother Chris, Rohan Tungate and Sam Masters in the final. After playing second fiddle to Jason Doyle in the first three rounds of the Australian Championship, in the final round in North Brisbane it was Max Fricke who dominated proceedings. The first semi final saw Max and Ryan Douglas make the final with Jason Doyle missing out for the first time. Jack and Rohan Tungate joined them in the final with Jack passing Max on the first lap to become Australian Champion.

After a disappointing 2023 Croatian GP Jack was set to win the Warsaw GP until the race was stopped. Freddy Lindgren won the rerun but Jack was a tremendous second ahead of the current world champion. He followed this with third place in the Czech GP, once again ahead of Bartosz Zmarzlik.

On the home front he lost the No.1 bib to Tobiasz in June but a run of maximums saw him reclaim it in July. Disaster then occurred in the World Team Cup final with Jack suffering a broken wrist. With guests at a premium Simon quickly invited Tai Woffinden to join the Tigers as cover.

Current average from official fixtures in 2023 = 9.20

Maximums: Full = 3 Home & 2 Away;  Paid = 1 Away

Kyle was an accomplished grass track and motocross competitor before turning his attention to amateur speedway in 2008. Queensland U21 State Champion in 2011 and 12 and British U21 champion in 2015, his previous clubs include Scunthorpe, Poole, Somerset, Edinburgh and Swindon and he become an important part of the Wolverhampton Elite league team.

Kyle first doubled down with the Tigers in 2016. He soon settled in at Owlerton and after solving some machine issues in mid-season he stepped up assuming the captaincy and inspired the Tigers into the play offs, and all the way through to the final despite his team mates dropping like flies around him.

A fantastic season 2017 saw Kyle steer us to Championship success and the Championship Pairs title with Lasse Bjerre. Having put an impressive 1.44 onto his average he replaced Josh Grajczonek as the Tigers No.1 for 2018 after a lengthy stand-off with Workington who held his contract. He defended his Pairs title in 2018 at Somerset with his close friend Charles Wright on the eve of the British Grand Prix but his average took a dip and he lost the no.1 jacket.

Captaining the Tigers again in 2019 Kyle missed the Somerset match after having an extraordinary drug test result while guesting for King's Lynn at Eastbourne at the end of June. This turned out to be a trace of the co-codamol he was given in hospital after dislocating his shoulder when he crashed in the British semi-final at Redcar. He dislocated it again in the re-arranged away match at Eastbourne on the eve of the Championship Riders final and had to sit out the end of the season. With racing suspended for 2020 Kyle took the opportunity to have surgery on his shoulder and reported it successful when riding in the Peter Craven memorial meeting at Belle Vue. In December he repaid the help he had received from the Ben Fund with a sponsored cycle ride from his home town Swindon to Manchester, a mere 156 miles in grotty weather!

When the Tigers elected to move up to the Premiership Kyle had to choose between Wolverhampton and Sheffield, and became the first name on the Tigers team sheet. He also rode for Leicester in the Championship and continued as Sheffield skipper in 2022 encouraging his team to the top of the league, just missing out to Belle Vue's augmented team for the Championship.

Kyle rides for Plymouth and Sheffield in 2023....

Official meetings average from 2023 = 5.97

Born in King's Lynn Lewis rode for his home town junior team for four years before graduating to the first team after spells with Portsmouth, Somerset and Newcastle. In 2016 he rode for Lakeside but also appeared for Ipswich and Scunthorpe. Impressive performances for the Scorpions in 2017 saw him also riding for Somerset and 6 appearances for Poole and a 7.13 average. Home again with King's Lynn and doubling with Glasgow in 2018, then Eastbourne in 2019. 2021 found him doubling with Eastbourne before joining Redcar.

His 2022 clubs were King's Lynn and Redcar before the Stars released him looking for big points from Nikolai Klindt and Frederick Jakobsen. He joined the Tigers to replace Craig Cook and helped us to the top of the league and within a whisker of the League Championship.

Happy to be back with the Tigers in 2023 when he will start at reserve, Lewis will also ride for Oxford in the Championship. Lewis was riding well at No.2 accompanying Jack or Tobiasz until suffering an innocuous looking fall in the first heat of the Ipswich match and breaking his collar bone, but after making a rapid recovery he became victim of the averages when the Tigers signed Chris Holder to replace Adam Ellis.

Official meetings average from 2023 = 5.47

Maximums: Paid: 1 Away

Tobiasz' first British club was Wolverhampton in 2015. He joined Swindon in 2017 winning the League Championship, then the Elite Shield in 2018 and both the League Championship and KO-Cup in 2019. Tobiasz was a gold medal winner of the U21 World Team Cup with Poland in 2012 and more recently won the 2021 Grand Prix Qualifier at Glasgow ahead of Chris Holder and Nikolai Klindt. Tobiasz rides for Kroszno in the Polish Extra League and joined the Tigers in 2022. He endeared himself to the Owlerton crowds with some thrilling racing and his impressive form both home and away saw him replace Jack Holder as no.1 when he topped the Tigers averages. It will be interesting to see who will be dominant in 2023.

Tobiasz is recovered from a broken collarbone sustained riding back home in Poland and took over from Jack as No.1 in June, top scoring in our away defeat at Monmore Green.

Official meetings average in 2023 = 8.62

Maximums: Full 1 Home; Paid: 2 Home & 1 Away

Josh has been riding for Edinburgh since 2017. He joined the Tigers in the Premiership mid-season 2021 to replace fellow Aussie Justin Sedgmen. Josh joined King's Lynn Stars in 2022 and finished the season with 7.45 average from 19 matches, and 7.20 away from home.

He picked up a shoulder injury in 2023 and while out of action lost his team place when the Stars signed Artem Laguta and Kye Thomson. He re-joined the Tigers as replacement for out of form David Bellego.

Official meetings average from 2023 = 6.98

Tai is the son of former Sheffield and Scunthorpe favourite Rob Woffinden. Born in this country he lived in Australia from the age of three and was a product of the thriving Australian junior speedway set-up. His family returned to his home country to ride for his birth town Scunthorpe Scorpions in the Conference League and his progress was meteoric. Tai's debut for the 'Tigers' against the Redcar 'Bears' on his sixteenth birthday wasn't exactly a fairy tale as he failed to score in his three outings.

Tai rode for Len Silver at Rye House for 2 years winning both the British U18 and U21 Championships and the P.L.R.C. at Owlerton. Joining Wolverhampton in 2009 he helped them to win the League Championship and became British Champion in 2013, 14 and 15. He helped Wolverhampton to another League Championship in 2016 by which time he was established as a superstar with 11 Grand Prix wins and 3 World Championships in 2013, 2015 and 2018.

Tai's last appearance at Owlerton was the British semi-final 10 years ago which he won with a 15 point maximum on his way to the first of his British Championship titles. He has been absent from Britain since the Covid outbreak but has now been tempted back to join the 'Tigers' as cover for the injured Jack Holder.

Tai broke his hand crashing out of the Cardiff Grand Prix.

Official meetings average from 2023 = 8.47