Belle Vue Aces v Sheffield Tigers

BELLE Vue kicked off their home campaign with a 48-42 win over Sheffield in the first match of the Premiership KO Cup.

The Aces were taken to a last heat decider but Dan Bewley and Brady Kurtz raced to a 4-2 over Josh Pickering and Jack Holder to put themselves on the board in the Northern section.

The home side had to cover for the loss of Norick Blodorn, who fell heavily in Heat 1 after being collected by Holder who was attempting to pass, but reserve Tate Zischke stepped up with an impressive display.

Zischke scored 10+2 from seven rides to back up Kurtz with 12 and Bewley with 11+1, whilst Leon Flint starred for the visitors with 8+1 including a win over Kurtz in Heat 10, but Holder suffered mechanical trouble prior to Heat 13.

Aces boss Mark Lemon said: “It was a great performance tonight. It’s always tough to get the first meeting out of the way, you really just want to get a win and that’s what the boys did.

“It was quite gritty behind the scenes. Brady was under the weather, Will (Cairns) had a mechanical nightmare, and obviously Norick took that bang in his first race and had to pull out.

“That put some pressure on the boys but Tate stepped up and did a really good job, which we were really pleased to see.”

Sheffield manager Simon Stead said: “For an opening night display, overall I think there are reasons to be encouraged and there are definitely positives we can take moving forward.

“I think the performances of the lower end of the team was the most pleasing aspect for sure.

“And when you consider a few of the teething problems a few of our other lads had, on most other nights we’d have been walking away with a win in the bag.”

PREMIERSHIP KO CUP (NORTH)
BELLE VUE 48: Brady Kurtz 12, Dan Bewley 11+1, Tate Zischke 10+2, Peter Kildemand 7+1, Zach Cook 7+1, Norick Blodorn 1, Will Cairns 0.
SHEFFIELD 42: Leon Flint 8+1, Josh Pickering 7+1, Chris Holder 6+1, Jack Holder 6, Anders Rowe 6, Jye Etheridge 6, Luke Killeen 3+2.

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Photo credit: IAN CHARLES

Watch the action from Heat 12 (courtesy of BVTV) – see below