Unbeaten in September, Tigers were hoping to win their first league match in almost 5 months, it also marked the last official match for James Grieves. Theo Pijper was the guest for Joe Screen, whilst Plymouth were much changed from that originally advertised. Olly Allen who was himself a guest, was replaced by Matthew Wethers whilst Rasmus Jensen was somehow unavailable, Connor Coles son of ex Glasgow and Edinburgh rider Michael Coles took his place
GLASGOW62: James Grieves 14+1, Dakota North 12, Theo Pijper 10+1, Anders Thomsen 9+1, Henning Bager 6+3, Joey Ringwood 6, Joe Jacobs 5+3.
PLYMOUTH 31: Matthew Wethers 13, Mark Lemon 6, Jake Anderson 5+3, Simon Nielsen 4, Michael Palm Toft 3, Connor Coles 0, Todd Kurtz 0.
Heat 1: It’s Pijper and Bager from the gate but Henning leaves a gap up the inside and Wethers passes him into the third bend and retains second place coming out of the corner. Henning keeps him honest but it’s a 4-2.
Heat 2: Joey keeps up his recent good form with an easy win but Joe misses the start and despite plenty of effort cannot get past Anderson, Nielsen a comfortable second. 7-5
Heat 3: Grieves makes the start and is joined by Thomsen whilst Palm Toft gets by Coles in the opening bends. No changes after that as Tigers take a 5-1. 12-6
Heat 4: Dakota makes a good start but Joey seemed to be sleeping allowing both Devils to easily take the minor positions. Despite Joey being onAnderson’s back wheel he cannot find a way past and the heat is shared. 15-9
Heat 5: James just gets the better of Wethers over the opening two bends with Anders third. Anders is all over the track looking for grip and gradually closes in on Wethers but runs out of laps just losing out on the line. 19-11
Heat 6: Lemon makes a great start and easily wins the race, behind him Theo almost comes to grief on the third bend of the opening lap but the following Henning covers his error and the two easily share the heat. 22-14
Heat 7: It’s Dakota again with another easy win, although he was gradually getting wider and wider on every lap!! Behind him Joe took second although Palm Toft seemed slightly quicker but Joe covered his inside bursts. 27-15
Heat 8: Plymouth resisted the temptation to use a TR and it proved to be wise as Henning and Joey took another easy 5-1 over Anderson and Kurtz. 32-16
Heat 9: The TR duly appeared with Lemon but again it was Grieves who made the start with Anders riding around everyone to join him down the back straight, James letting him past and then looking after his partner although Lemon never threatened. 37-17
Heat 10: Theo away again and despite Henning missing the start he made a great cut back on the first bend and persuaded Palm Toft to move over and took second down the back straight. 5-1 from there. 42-18
Heat 11: Wethers on a TR was first to show, Dakota trying to take him wide on the first bend and nearly falling off. He recovered to take second with Joe an easy third ahead of the poor Kurtz. 45-24
Heat 12: Amazingly Simon Nielsen was the only rider who had an average over 4 in this race, despite only three reserves being in it but it was Anders who again showed what he can do on good machinery with another win. Joey missed the start again and could make no impression on thePlymouthreserves. 48-27
Heat 13: Tigers were back on form again with a surprisingly easy 5-1 over the Devils best two riders, although its just as well Theo didn’t have eyes in the back of his head as Wethers lifted alarmingly on the fourth bend and just got it down just as he looked like collecting him. 53-28
Heat 14: There was only going to be one winner and James duly collected the win. Joe again not looking particularly quick did enough to stay ahead of Anderson. 58-29
Heat 15: Easily the best race of the day saw all four riders almost abreast coming out of the second bend. It was Wethers and Grieves who emerged and they rode side by side for the entire lap before James passed him going into lap 2 with an outstanding outside move. Dakota took third. James won the Svein Kaasa memorial trophy on the 41st anniversary of his death at Hampden. 62-31
Not a particularly exciting meeting with little passing. Plymouth’s weakened team not helping either, Wethers apart, they were poor, although Anderson was always in the points. Tigers picked up their one and only extra league point and the riders enjoyed a rare pay day with everyone paid for a couple of wins. The highlight being James Grieves’s paid maximum, a fitting way to go out especially passing Wethers in his last ever official race.
So Tigers end up with their lowest ever league points tally, their lowest ever amount of league wins and the wooden spoon. Quite a few will be glad to see the back of 2013!!!
<report by Derek Watson>