Premiership Grand Final
Sheffield Tigers 56 (92)
Ipswich Witches 34 (88)
Ipswich Witches came agonisingly close to completing a league and cup double at Sheffield tonight, losing out in their quest for the Premiership title as they went down by four points on aggregate.
The visitors went into the final heat needing a maximum advantage to force a super heat and although Emil Sayfutdinov won the race, the home pairing of Chris Holder and Robert Lambert held out Jason Doyle, for a shared heat that gave them the title.
It was tough for KO Cup champions the Witches, whom many had written off weeks ago, but with the same seven riders they started the season with, they lost to a Sheffield side using three guests.
Going into the match with an 18-point deficit to make up, the home side had pulled 12 points back before heat six.
Robert Lambert won the opening heat from Erik Riss and Sayfutdinov, who passed Kyle Howarth for a point, to ensure a share of the spoils.
The Sheffield reserves scored a maximum 5-1 in the next before two home 4-2s in heats three and four meant the Tigers were eight up on the night and trailed by just ten on aggregate.
The Witches then stopped the rot with two shared heats, with Doyle winning the sixth and Danny King and teammate Keynan Rew (who passed Jye Etheridge) following home Chris Harris in the next.
A home maximum in the eighth closed things to within two points on aggregate and although Doyle led heat nine, he was reeled in by Josh Pickering in a drawn heat.
Disaster struck in the next with King crashing out behind the home pair. In the rerun, with King excluded the Sheffield 5-1 gave them a 20-point lead and a two point aggregate advantage.
Heat 11 saw Sayfutdinov defeat Harris and with Riss finishing third the visitors had pulled a couple back to make it 78-78.
But Sheffield then went four up overall, with Holder and Etheridge comfortably defeating a battered King.
Heat 13 then saw Doyle win a titanic battle with Harris, to follow Sayfutdinov home for a maximum, to make it all square, before a home maximum in the penultimate heat put Sheffield into a 4-point overall lead with just one race left.
As disappointing as the result was to take, this will go down as a successful season for the Witches, having won the KO Cup for the first time since 1998.
Sheffield: 1. Robert Lambert 9+1, Kyle Howarth 5+3, Chris Holder 11, Josh Pickering 8+2, Chris Harris 9, Jye Etheridge 9+1, Jason Edwards 5+1
Ipswich: Emil Sayfutdinov 11+1, Erik Riss 3, Danny King 5, Keynan Rew 3+1, Jason Doyle 9+1, Danyon Hume 2+1, Joe Thompson 1
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