1st
Sheffield Tigers (Ricky Ashworth & Josh Auty)

2nd
Birmingham Brummies (Jason Lyons & Steve Johnston)

3rd
Somerset Rebels (Cory Gathercole & Shane Parker)

4th
Glasgow Tigers (Travis McGowan & Josh Grajczonek)

There cannot have been many people outside of the Steel City who had Sheffield down as their choice of title contenders, but the Tigers duo of Ricky Ashworth and Josh Auty fully deserved their Premier League Pairs Championship crown, won in front of a record ‘Pairs’ crowd at the Oak Tree Arena, which once again played its part in making this another enthralling and highly exciting night of Championship action.

Two intriguing sets of group matches saw the pre-meeting favourites, Birmingham and Newcastle, immediately justify that tag with maximum heat wins in Group A, defending Champions Birmingham shocking the home Somerset fans in their heat whilst Newcastle quite easily disposed of King’s Lynn.

Much to the relief of the Somerset supporters, the Rebels hit back from that opening race disappointment with a 6-3 win over Redcar, though it took a last bend manoeuvre by skipper Shane Parker to over-haul Ben Wilson to claim the all important 3rd place.

A couple of heats prior to that though, the two group ‘heavyweights’, Birmingham and Newcastle went head to head, many believing that the outcome of this encounter would determine who would progress through to the semi’s as group winners and who would move on as the runners –up.

As it turned out, the heat had an even bigger impact on the final outcome of the group, as it dealt Newcastle a cruel blow when Kenni Larsen was forced to retire from the race when his bike slowed as the riders were about to start the final lap, and what had looked like becoming a 5-4 heat win to the Diamonds became a 6-3 win for the Brummies.

Worse was to follow for Newcastle as they lost out by the same 6-3 heat score-line when they came up against Somerset which put the Rebels in the box seat for a place in the semi-finals, a place that they confirmed when they beat King’s Lynn 6-3 in Somerset’s final match of the group stages, and despite Newcastle beating Redcar by a maximum 7-2 score in their final outing to put them level with Somerset on 20 points in second place in the group, 2 points behind group winners Birmingham, it was Somerset that progressed through to the semi’s by virtue of their heat 13 win over Newcastle.

Meanwhile, Group B was no less exciting as Rye House and Sheffield both opened up with maximum heat wins over a woeful Edinburgh and Scunthorpe respectively, Sheffield’s Josh Auty giving an early indication of things to come as he made a sweeping pass on Scunthorpe’s Magnus Karlsson to get himself into 2nd place behind team-mate Ashworth.

After that bright start though, Rye House’s challenge faded away and it was Glasgow who started to come up on the rails to put themselves in contention for a top 2 group finish and a place in the semi-finals.

With Sheffield never really being troubled at the top of the group, thanks in no small part to some stunning riding by Auty, typified by his 3rd to 1st ride against Rye House, and very astute team riding when called upon by Ashworth, crucially Glasgow kept the more consistent run going and although they lost out to Scunthorpe when the two sides met, the Scorpions gave themselves too much to do after a slow start in their opening two rides and so it was that the two sets of Tigers, Sheffield and Glasgow that joined Birmingham and Somerset in the last 4.

The first of those semi-finals pitched Birmingham against Group B runners-up, Glasgow, for whom Travis McGowan quickly forced himself into the lead, but with the Brummies duo of Johnston and Lyons holding second and third ahead of McGowan’s partner, Josh Grajczonek, things looked bleak for the Glaswegian partnership.

In an attempt to manufacture an opening for Grajczonek, McGowan tried to slow up the Birmingham riders, but speedway riders do not come much more experienced that Lyons and Johnston, and they held sway until Johnston made the telling move to pass McGowan off the final bend to send Birmingham into their second successive final with a 6-3 heat victory.

If that semi-final was very much a tactical affair then the match-up between Somerset and Sheffield in the second semi-final was anything but, as Sheffield’s Josh Auty got himself into the lead, only for the Rebels Cory Gathercole to put the young Brit under severe pressure until he finally forced an opening to get himself in front.

Undeterred, Auty came right back at Gathercole and, not for the first time on the night, made a telling pass on the Somerset number 1 to get himself back into the lead, thereafter having to fend off Gathercole’s attempts to repay the compliment and get himself back out in front.

Behind this battling duo, Sheffield’s Ricky Ashworth held the all important 3rd place, but was being reeled in at a fast rate of knots by Somerset’s Shane Parker. With Auty just doing enough to hold off Gathercole for the win, Parker needed to get past Ashworth if Somerset were to join Birmingham in the final, but as the pair of them made the dash for the finishing line, Ashworth just held off the fast finishing Parker, to take Sheffield into the final, there being less than half a bike length between the two of them as they flashed across the line.

The Somerset fans did get some degree of consolation as the Rebels saw off Glasgow in the race-off to determine the 3rd and 4th place finishers, but by now everyone was eagerly awaiting the Grand Final between the Birmingham Brummies and the Sheffield Tigers.

From the off, Sheffield’s Ashworth got to the front, but with team-mate Auty stuck at the back behind Birmingham’s Lyons and Johnston, things looked bleak for the Tigers. As they headed down the back straight on the opening lap, Auty started to close on 3rd place Johnston but as they entered the 3rd turn, Johnston’s bike suddenly slowed up, forcing the Aussie out of the race and with it any chance the Brummies had of retaining their crown.

With team-mate Ashworth in an unassailable lead, Auty’s 3rd place would have been sufficient to give Sheffield the Championship, but no doubt partly wishing to do things in style and partly to make sure of things just in case Ashworth encountered bike problems, Auty set about chasing down Lyons, storming past him to get himself into second place and the 2010 Premier League Pairs Championship was deservedly in the hands of the Sheffield Tigers.

Group A; Birmingham 22 (Jason Lyons 11, Steve Johnston 11), Somerset 20 (Cory Gathercole 10, Shane Parker 10), Newcastle 20 (Kenni Larsen 11, Mark Lemon 9), King’s Lynn 15 (Kevin Doolan 11, Kozza Smith 4), Redcar 13 (Ben Wilson 2, Emiliano Sanchez 11)

Group B; Sheffield 24 (Ricky Ashworth 11, Josh Auty 13), Glasgow 20 (Travis McGowan 9, Josh Grajczonek 11), Rye House 18 (Jordan Frampton 8, Chris Neath 10), Scunthorpe 18 (Magnus Karlsson 11, David Howe 7), Edinburgh 10 (Ryan Fisher 5, Kevin Wölbert 5)

Semi-Finals: Birmingham beat Glasgow (6-3); Sheffield beat Somerset (6-3)

3rd/4th run-off: Somerset beat Glasgow (6-3)

Final: Sheffield beat Birmingham (7-2)

Report: Ian Belcher

(Spare a thought for poor old Dave T who's car broke down on the journey home from Cardiff.)