Speedway: Praise for both sets of riders and fans after rain soaked Sheffield v Wolves semi-final

Tigers boss Simon Stead has praised the Sheffield and Wolverhampton riders who battled through rain to settle the two clubs' Sports Insure Speedway Premiership play-off semi-final.

Heavy rain hit the Owlerton track around 30 minutes before start time, but both sets of riders went out in the slippy conditions to ride until the tie was finally out of the Wolves' teach at the end of heat 10.

Rain finally brought a halt to proceedings on Thursday evening after Tigers had made themselves mathematically certain of victory.

“Credit to both teams,” Stead said. “Track conditions were difficult with the rain that came down all night but there weren’t any whingers, they all got their heads down and they got us to 10 races.

“Unfortunately there was just no let up in the weather to enable us to go any further than that and the track conditions deteriorated as the meeting went on.

“But we were still treated to some great racing and that’s down to the boys giving it 110 per cent and you can’t fault the effort at all.”

The 89-61 aggregate scoreline means they secured their place in the Premiership Grand Final for a second successive season – and after finishing runners-up by the narrowest of margins last term, Stead now has the silverware in his sights.

“I’m obviously really pleased,” he said. “We’ve been working hard, we’ve had to patch things up and make the most of a difficult position.

“The lads who we’ve brought in have done a fantastic job, they’ve really bought into the Club and they’ve given their all.

“The supporters have been right behind us and it’s nice that we could pay that support back with another final – that’s two in two years but now we just want to go one better!”

Sheffield will travel to Ipswich on Monday (October 2, 7.30) for the first leg with the decider at Owlerton next Thursday (October 5, 7.30).