Belle Vue held on for a 48-42 victory over King’s Lynn with a solid contribution from former Workington Comets rider Charles Wright.
The Aces were without Matej Zagar and Jye Etheridge due to injury but still powered into a 12-point lead after Heat 10, only to be reeled back in and forced into a last-heat decider.
Max Fricke (12) won Heat 15 for the home side but second place for Niels-Kristian Iversen (14) ahead of Charles Wright (12+1) ensured the Stars took something from the meeting.
Wright said: “All the boys did their job. We did miss Jye and Matej, for sure, but I think this was an important result for us because we’ve proved we can rise to the challenge.
“Going into Heat 15 I didn’t realise how close the scores were, and while we try not to focus too much on that myself and Max knew we had a job to do.
“Overall I think we can be proud of what we achieved. King’s Lynn didn’t make it easy for us, but at the end of the day we got the three points which is the main thing.”
Another former Comet Kyle Howarth had a key role in Sheffield staging a tremendous comeback to snatch a 47-43 victory in the televised Premiership clash at Ipswich.
Jason Doyle scored a paid maximum (14+1) for the Witches, who raced into a 10-2 lead after two races but were pegged back as the meeting approached the halfway stage.
Skipper Howarth (10) and reserve Stefan Nielsen then recorded a crucial 5-1 for the visitors in Heat 14 to put them four points up, and although Doyle competed his unbeaten night in the finale, guest Chris Harris and Adam Ellis did enough to see off Troy Batchelor
Tigers boss Simon Stead. A former Workington favourite at Derwent Park, said: “We got caught napping early on but we chased the set-up and eventually got our noses in front.
“Even after the first couple, I always felt confident that if we kept working hard we could get through to Heat 15 and get the job done.
“I’m really pleased with the boys – it was genuine, hard work from them, pulling together, helping one another with set-ups and that and they came back strong and did really well.”
Ipswich manager Ritchie Hawkins, yet another ex-Comet. said: “It was a disappointing result, and we simply were not strong enough throughout the side. We had too many riders not quite on it.
“Sheffield punished us for our mistakes, and they are a good team. We were not better than them on the night, they deserved the win. Without performing anywhere near our best we weren’t far off their standard, though.”
