SHEFFIELD finished off their Premier League campaign with a 51-41 defeat at Newport on Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers went into the fixture already without the injured Richard Hall and Scott Smith and their chances of success in South Wales were dealt another blow when they lost Hugh Skidmore with a sprained and bruised wrist following a crash in heat 1.

This left the Yorkshiremen facing an uphill task so it was no surprise when the Wasps quickly opened up a 20-10 lead after five races.

Josh Auty’s tactical ride win for double points and Joel Parsons third place in heat 7 did help to reduce the arrears, but the home side replied straight-away with a 5-1 in heat 8 to go 30-21 ahead

Chris Mills and Parsons hit back with a 5-1 in heat 12 and with just five points now separating the sides, the Tigers still had a chance of salvaging something from the match.

Those hopes unfortunately ended in a meeting defining heat 14. Mills was disqualified after falling and then in the re-run Auty had bike problems whilst challenging Jordan Frampton for the lead. This handed a 5-0 to Newport and with it, the match.

Despite the end result the injury-affected Tigers kept on battling away in what were difficult track conditions. There were a number of falls during the meeting but Eric Boocock’s side couldn’t be faulted for effort.

NEWPORT 51: Kim Nilsson 11+1, Jordan Frampton 10+1, Paul Fry 7+1, Jonas Andersson 6+2, James Holder 6+1, Chris Kerr 6+1, Kyle Newman 5+3

SHEFFIELD 41: Ricky Ashworth 16, Josh Auty 13, Joel Parsons 6+2, Chris Mills 6+1, Luke Priest 0, Hugh Skidmore 0, Richard Hall (Rider Replacement)