Workington Comets experienced heat leader Troy Batchelor helped Plymouth return to winning ways by defeating Berwick 53-37 despite another setback for Ben Barker.
Thompson twins Dan (12+1) and Joe Thompson (11) led the scoring for the hosts with guest Troy Batchelor contributing 10+1.
Batchelor was riding at number one and after two seconds he won his next two before missing out of the points in heat 15 which was a 3-3 and won by Dan Thompson.
The Gladiators captain Barker was withdrawn from the meeting after a Heat 7 crash but his team-mates still pulled off a victory over the Bandits.
The victory also gave the Gladiators the aggregate point as they added three points to their Cab Direct Championship total.
Former Workington rider Kyle Howarth stages his Testimonial event at Owlerton tonight.
A standard 15 heat format will see a Tigers outfit take on a Rest of the World Select, with a bonus ‘Dash for Cash’ race between the top four point scorers, with three ‘Young Lions’ junior heats also on the schedule.
Sheffield’s line-up includes Howarth alongside current team-mates Josh Pickering, Jason Edwards and Dan Gilkes. They will be led by British legend Chris Harris, who guested for the club in their league title glory last October, and whose son Cruz will take the opening laps of the night.
The Rest of the World Select include British GP Wild Card Tom Brennan and a strong Australian connection with the likes of Ryan Douglas, Sam Masters, Zach Cook and Jake Allen.
Sheffield skipper Howarth, who rode for Workington from 2012 to 2015, said: “I feel like we’ve been constantly juggling the line-ups around for the past three or four weeks, but hopefully we’ve got them nicely balanced to give everyone a nice close contest.
“I’m sure all the boys will help me put on a great show for the supporters and I just hope as many people from as many different clubs can make it because a lot of time and effort has gone into planning this.”
