The Newcastle Diamonds scored one of their best tallies for years at the Sheffield Tigers last night thanks in the main to a superb show from Jason King.

Josef Franc also weighed in with some excellent races early on, winning Heat One ahead of home star Ricky Ashworth in a fast time too of 60.8.

King's opening glory shot came two races later when he put one over home skipper Andre Compton with George Stancl holding out Joel Parsons at the back for a Newcastle 2-4 to level the match at 9 apiece.

Eight points down after the sixth, King came out again to lead well from the off at high speed, and for a while Stancl was up with him as the Diamonds sat on a 1-5 until new boy at Sheffield, teenager Kyle Hughes came round the Czech to restrict the come back to two, 24-18.

Franc was nominated in Heat 11 as a tactical rider for double points and made the most of it by making a great gate to lead well with his partner and skipper Richard Juul doing the same and tucking in for a sensational Newcastle 1-8, hauling the match back to 39-27.

With the track getting extremely slick, the grippy passing lines were dwindling; in Heat 12 a third placed Stancl could make no ground up at all on Paul Cooper ahead of him in a Sheffield maximum to seal the win for the home side.

A fast Ashworth swoop round Franc in the 13th registered another 5-1 to the Tigers, before King ended a memorable night for him by taking two more wins, in which he fiercely defended his early lead during the final two heats to tie them both and keep a grip on respectability for the visitors restricting the Tigers win to just 17 points.

A reasonably satisfied team manager, George English said: €śThis wasn't a bad score for us at Sheffield with Jason absolutely brilliant!

"Pepe [Franc] started off like a train but ran a little out of steam later on and our captain's paid win in that vital Heat 11 was a revelation.

Overall of course the loss is a disappointment and some of the lads again were down on points, but it could have been a whole lot worse at this track.

Sheffield Tigers 55
Ricky Ashworth 2,3,3,3,2 = 13
Lee Smethills - Rider Replacement
Andre Compton 2,3,3,3,1* = 12+1
Joel Parsons 0,1,3,2*,2 = 8+1
Ben Wilson 1,0,1,2* = 4+1
Kyle Hughes ® 1*,1,2,0,1* = 5+2
Paul Cooper ® 3,3,2*,2*,1,2* = 13+3

Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds 38
Josef Franc 3,2,6^,1,0 = 12
Richard Juul © 0,0,1,1,2* = 4+1
George Stancl 1,1,0,1 = 3
Jason King 3,2,3,2,3,3 = 16
Christian Henry - Rider Replacement
Luke Priest (Guest) ® 2,0,0,0,0,0 = 2
Sean Stoddart ® 0,0,1,0 = 1