THE Tigers KO Cup hopes are over for another year after narrowly crashing out of the competition on aggregate at the Isle of Wight.

Sheffield held a fourteen-point advantage from the first leg at Owlerton, but the men from Smallbrook Stadium clawed back the deficit to clinch overall victory in the penultimate race.

The tie was fairly evenly poised after heat 6 with the Islanders eight-points in front, but with the Tigers still holding a six-point lead overall they were still very much in with a chance of going through.

However, two quick-fire 5-1s from the Isle of Wight put them into an aggregate lead after heat 8 and it was an advantage they never surrendered.

Ben Wilson’s tactical ride in heat 9 could only muster four-points after losing the lead to Glen Phillips on the third lap, and Krzysztof Stojanowski and Cory Gathercole then put the home side into a six-point aggregate lead with a five-pointer over Andre Compton in heat 10.

Sheffield’s hopes were momentarily raised with successive 4-2s to cut the Islanders overall advantage to just two-points with two races remaining, but their hopes were finally dashed when tactical substitute Compton brought down Andrew Bargh in heat 14, resulting in an aggregate winning 5-1 for James Holder and Bargh.

ISLE OF WIGHT 54 (agg: 92): Cory Gathercole 11+3, Jason Bunyan 11+1, Glen Phillips 11, James Holder 9+1, Andrew Bargh 6+1, Krzysztof Stojanowski 6, Paul Fry R/R

SHEFFIELD 38 (agg: 90): Ben Wilson 14, Ricky Ashworth 8, Andre Compton 7+1, Paul Cooper 5+1, Joel Parsons 2+2, Lee Smethills 1, Sam Martin 1