King’s Lynn Stars v Sheffield Tigers

KING’S Lynn are back in the Premiership play-off places after a vital 50-40 win over Sheffield at the Adrian Flux Arena.

The Stars moved into fourth position in the table, level on points with Ipswich who have a match in hand and two points adrift of the Tigers, who have also raced one match fewer.

Sheffield threatened to repeat the King’s Lynn’s own feat from Owlerton recently in pulling back a ten-point deficit, and the visitors were inspired by a brilliant showing from former King’s Lynn rider Anders Rowe.

The visitors carded back-to-back 5-1s in Heats 10 and 11, but the Stars struck back in Heats 12 and 13 with Rising Star Jody Scott passing Chris Holder to join skipper Chris Harris for a key maximum advantage.

Harris rolled back the years for the hosts with 14 points from five rides, with Jan Kvech on 9+3, whilst Rowe piled up 14+1 for the visitors as he only missed out in Heat 15.

King’s Lynn manager Rob Lyon said: “I think we would have taken ten (points) at the start of the meeting, so I’m happy with that, and I felt it was Jody’s best meeting in a senior King’s Lynn race-jacket. He rode really well.

“If you look through the whole team everyone chipped in, including Max (Fricke) winning Heat 13, and that’s what you need.

“The difference tonight was our reserves – 13 points from Jody and Jason (Edwards) between them, against Sheffield’s one, so that was definitely the major difference.”

Sheffield boss Simon Stead said: “It was a tough night all round; we’ve had some individual brilliance but one point from seven rides at reserve just makes the job really difficult for the lads in the main body of the team.

“I am disappointed, especially with our two reserves because they’ve been scoring heavily in the Championship, so I came here in good spirits thinking there was a chance we could do something.”

KING’S LYNN 50: Chris Harris 14, Jan Kvech 9+3, Jody Scott 8+2, Cooper Rushen 7, Ben Cook 4+2, Jason Edwards 4+1, Max Fricke 4.
SHEFFIELD 40: Anders Rowe 14+1, Josh Pickering 8, Chris Holder 7, Leon Flint 5+2, Richard Lawson 5+1, Luke Killeen 1, Jye Etheridge 0.

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Photo credit: DEREK LEADER