SHEFFIELD’S trip to Reading turned out to be a fruitless one as they went down to a thumping 60-33 Premier League defeat to the Berkshire side.

The Tigers were simply no match for a solid Racers team who provided twelve of the fifteen race winners. Ulrich Ostergaard rattled in a 15-point full-house for the Smallmead side and Mark Lemon provided some good support with 10 (paid 11).

Skipper Andre Compton and Ricky Ashworth pretty much fought a lone furrow for the Owlerton men scoring 12 and 10 (paid 11) respectively.

Sheffield did actually get off to a bright start when Ashworth and Joel Parsons raced to a 4-2 over Lemon and Chris Mills in heat 1, but Reading quickly levelled things up in heat 2 and by the time six races had been completed they had opened up a 25-11 lead.

Compton stopped the rot with a tactical ride win in heat 7 ahead of Tom P Madsen and Nicki Glanz to earn the Tigers a 6-3, but further heat advantages saw the Racers resume normal service to lead 41-22 after heat 9.

Ashworth restored some pride when taking the chequered flag in a shared heat 13, but it was too little too late as Reading ran out comfortable 60-plus winners.

READING: Ulrich Ostergaard 15, Mark Lemon 10+1, Tom P Madsen 9+1, Joe Haines 9+1, Tomas Suchanek 7+1, Chris Mills 6+1, Nick Glanz 4+2

SHEFFIELD: Andre Compton 12, Ricky Ashworth 10+1, Paul Cooper 5, Joel Parsons 4, Ben Wilson 1, Sam Martin 1, Lee Smethills 0