TIGERS WIN IT FOR TAI

SHEFFIELD dedicated their emphatic 61-29 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership victory over Birmingham to team-mate Tai Woffinden who remains in hospital.

The Tigers operated as a six-man until following Woffinden’s crash in Poland last weekend and dominated proceedings at Owlerton to record their joint highest victory ever in the Premiership.

Inspirational skipper Josh Pickering (16+1) and No.1 Jack Holder (14) dropped just a single point apiece whilst Anders Rowe (11+4) bagged a brilliant paid maximum on his Sheffield debut.

The visitors picked up only three race wins after being out-gated for most of the contest, with their top scorer being Matej Zagar on seven.

Pickering said: “It was an awesome team performance. Our backs were against the wall and it goes to show a great team can get going when the times are tough.

“I’m so proud of all of the boys here tonight – obviously we’ve got something sat at the back of our minds and we’re going to continue to have that for a number of weeks.

“I didn’t want to talk about it leading up to the meeting, but things hit close to home when it’s one of your best mates.”

Brummies manager Chris Adams said: “It’s one of those tracks where if you haven’t got the set-up right and you don’t hit form from the word go, you can soon be trailing by quite some distance.

“Unfortunately, that was the case for us and we only started to get going a little bit once it was way too late.

“We were all very disappointed with how it all went, but there’s no point thinking about it too much now – we have to learn and show we’re better than that next time we go back to Sheffield.”

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Photo credit: CHARLOTTE FLANIGAN