REPORT: Spires battle in defeat at Sheffield

BETGOODWIN Oxford Spires’ boss Peter Schroeck was a much happier man, after a battling performance at Sheffield’s Owlerton Stadium last night (Thursday). Sheffield Tigers eventually won the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership contest by 57-33, but there was no doubting the efforts of the visitors on an evening of some absorbing speedway.

Sheffield – the champions in 2023 – are renowned for their home form, and had won their previous two meetings at Owlerton this season by 61-29 over Birmingham and 57-33 over King’s Lynn.

Spires’ leading duo Rohan Tungate and Maciej Janowski both had much better nights. Tungate scored 10 – his best score for Spires this season – while Janowski was in the thick of the action and defeated both Holder brothers, Jack and Chris, from the back. There was also a good performance from the always reliable Charles Wright.

Sheffield took the lead with two opening 5-1s, before Wright kick-started Spires’ evening by winning Heat 3, after racing around Justin Sedgmen on the opening lap.

It commenced a run of five shared races, as Spires showed their fighting qualities and scrapped over every point. Luke Killeen trapped well in Heat 4 and gave Sheffield skipper Josh Pickering a run for his money. Erik Riss re-passed Justin Sedgmen for third in Heat 5, while Janowski won Heat 6 in fine style. He flew around Jack Holder on the opening lap, but the Australian Grand Prix star closed in and dived inside the Pole on the third bend of the final lap. But Janowski headed for the fast outside line and squeezed back past Holder coming out of the final turn for a superb victory. It was the only point dropped by Holder all evening.

Peter Kildemand took a tumble in Heat 7, when he was brought down by Lewis Kerr. It wasn’t what the Dane needed after a recent back injury, but he still involved in some close racing after that.

Sheffield took a 4-2 in Heat 8, before Schroeck played his tactical substitute to perfection by placing Tungate into Heat 9. The Australian fired from the gate and led all the way, while Janowski battled back past Chris Holder, as the Oxford pair combined for a 5-1 over the 2017 World Champion that reduced the deficit to six points.

Tigers then pulled away with six closing heat advantages. But there was still time for Tungate to defeat Pickering twice in Heat 11 and Heat 15 – the Australian had previously only dropped one point in his two previous home meetings.

What was noticeable in the pits afterwards was the smile of Tungate – a man who had looked highly troubled after recent performances for Spires.

Schroeck said: “Sheffield is always a tough place to come. But the boys battled tonight and this was much better performance by the team than in recent meetings.

“The final score doesn’t really reflect the meeting. For me, it’s important that the boys are building up their confidence.

“Both Rohan and Maciej were much happier with their engines today. Sheffield is a good test, because it’s such a fast track. They are still finding one or two things, but there was positivity in the pits tonight.

“Speedway is such a mental game. The heads of some of the riders in the Spires’ team had gone – they were focusing on all the things they had been doing wrong. When you do that, you can’t do anything right. To be honest, that can be the same in any walk of life. Tonight I saw the team concentrating on getting things right and I’m pleased with that.

“This was much better and I can’t wait for the next home meeting now, so we can put this all into practice and start winning meetings. Before that, we’re at King’s Lynn in a televised meeting on Monday, and we can put in a good account of ourselves there too.”

The next meeting at the BetGoodwin Oxford Stadium sees the Real Mini Company Oxford Chargers powered by AW Mobbs spring into action for the first time this season on Sunday afternoon (April 27) at 3pm. Tickets are on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at: https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Sheffield Tigers 57: Jack Holder 13+1, Anders Rowe 5+2, Chris Holder 7+2, Justin Sedgmen 4+1, Josh Pickering 11, Lewis Kerr 8+1, Leon Flint 9.

BetGoodwin Oxford Spires 33: Rohan Tungate 10, Erik Riss 3+1, Charles Wright 8, Peter Kildemand 2+1, Maciej Janowski 7+2, Francis Gusts 1, Luke Killeen 2.

PHOTO: Rohan Tungate hit double figures at Sheffield (pic: Steve Edmunds)