ADVANTAGE TIGERS IN CUP FINAL

SHEFFIELD build up a significant 20-point lead in the first leg of the Premiership KO Cup Final with Jack Holder and Josh Pickering both scoring six-ride maximums.

The Tigers defeated Ipswich 55-35 at Owlerton, limiting the Witches to just one race win as their Australian duo dominated.

Holder reeled off six wins for an 18-point maximum whilst Pickering raced to 17+1, and Chris Holder added support with 10+1 whilst there was an important contribution at reserve from Jason Edwards.

Keynan Rew was the sole Witches’ winner whilst Jaimon Lidsey top-scored with seven, and they face an uphill task to hold onto the silverware in the second leg at Foxhall on Thursday.

Tigers boss Simon Stead said: “Jack and Picko were both untouchable and they have both taken things to another level over the past month or so.

“It was great to see Jason riding with so much confidence – he battled away all night long. He’s constantly taking things on board and he’s reaping the rewards.

“The most important thing is that as a team, we’ve all knuckled down to put ourselves in a really strong position, but there’s still more to come and we’ve got 15 races to go where we just need to keep doing what we’re doing and plug away for the points.”

Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “It was a far bigger deficit than we were looking to pull back on Thursday.

“It is quite clear that we have lost our race winners, and we are not winning enough races without them. That was the big difference and there were heats that we needed to attack for heat advantages.

“There were other heats where we shouldn’t drop points and we did, and we have left ourselves a big task on Thursday.”

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Photo credit: CHARLOTTE FLANIGAN