THE Sheffield Window Centre Tigers picked themselves up from their drubbing at Kings Lynn on Wednesday to turn in a much-improved performance at Workington on Saturday evening, but it wasn’t quite enough to stop them from going down to a battling 49-41 Premier Trophy defeat at Derwent Park.

The Tigers actually led 10-8 after heat 3, but the Comets drew level in heat 4 and went onto hold a slender 22-20 advantage at the mid-way point of the meeting.

The home side then struck with a 5-1 in heat 8 to go six points in front and although they could never quite pull away from the Tigers, then finally broke Sheffield’s resistance with a 4-2 in heat 13 which put them eight points up (43-35).

The final two races were shared so Workington had themselves a hard-fought eight-point win and two Premier Trophy points.

George Stancl proved to be a good choice of guest in place of injured Tigers skipper Andre Compton by leading the Sheffield score chart with 12 points. Ricky Ashworth worked hard for his 8 (paid 10) and Jamie Birkinshaw had some good rides for his 5 (paid 7).

For Workington, Kauko Nieminen rode extremely well for his 14 points and had good support from Jamie Robertson 11 (paid 12) and Kenneth Hansen 8 (paid 9). The Comets do have an injury worry though, as they lost the services of number 1 James Wright after the young Brit was thrown over the safety fence in his opening ride.

Teams:

WORKINGTON: Kauko Nieminen 14, Jamie Robertson 11+1, Kenneth Hansen 8+1, Craig Branney 7+1, Mattia Carpanese 4+1, Charles Wright 3, James Wright 2

TIGERS: George Stancl 12, Ricky Ashworth 8+2, Jamie Birkinshaw 5+2, Paul Cooper 5, Ben Wilson 4+1, James Cockle 4, Joel Parsons 3