Tigers completed their 2015 league programme with an easy win against a patched up Rye House side to confirm third place in the table.
With the Rockets already missing Luke Bowen and Oliver Greenwood, they were further decimated when heat leaders Robert Lambert and Nicolaj B Jakobsen were injured the night before. With Northern based riders presumably unwilling or unable to guest for the Rockets, it was a distinctly second rate side that the Tigers faced.
Unfortunately rain fell before the match, making the track tricky early on and in the first couple of heats it was noticable that some of the riders were feeling their way around.
Heat 3 saw the only half decent race and it only lasted a lap! Aaron Summers made the start and was gone, behind him, Hynek Stichauer,Fernando Garcia and Kasper Lykke Nielsen were altogether down the back straight. Garcia fell on the third bend, while Nielsen did one of his trademark inside passes on the fourth bend. Just as Stichauer tried to re pass him on the outside going down the home straight, the referee prematurely stopped the race, just as Garcia had cleared the track. The re-run was a from the gate 4-2!!
There were precious few incidents to keep the fans entertained after that. Summers drove inside Edward Kennett in heat 5 on the second bend to thwart the TR, while Nick Morris beat Kennett out of the start in heat 7 but locked up on the first bend allowing Kennett to pass him.
The rain which had mostly stayed away, started falling at heat 9 and was really heavy during heat 10. The main feature of that race was Kevin Whelan’s silencer falling off on the way to the start. The Rockets not even replacing him to save time, which was just as well, as the meeting was abandoned shortly after, with the rain still falling.
This was probably the worst meeting of the season with precious little excitement to thrill another good crowd.
Lawson and Summers had easy 3 ride maximums, while the vagaries of the heat format saw James Sarjeant take 5 rides to Nick Morris’s two, meaning he appeared in half the heats!!
Rye House were probably just glad to get this out of the way, with Kennett and Nielsen doing their best to stem the tide, although the rest gave it their best shot.
Tigers will have harder tests to follow but a bit of confidence building is always welcome, with those Monarchs next up in the League Cup Final.
Glasgow Tigers 42 Rye House Rockets 20 Premier League-Match abandoned, result stands 13/09/2015 Glasgow Tigers Richard Lawson 3 3 3 9 James Sarjeant 1 2* 3 2* 1 9 + 1 Aaron Summers 3 3 3 9 Kauko Nieminen R/R (1 1 2*) (4 + 1) Nick Morris 3 2 5 Victor Palovaara 1 2* 0 3 + 1 Hynek Stichauer 3 1 1 2* 7 + 1 Mark McIlkenny DNR Rye House Rockets Edward Kennett 2 4^ 3 9 Keiran Douglas 0 0 0 0 Kasper Lykke Nielsen2 1 2 5 Robert Lambert R/R (Fx 3 X2) (3) Fernando Garcia Fx 1 1 1 3 Ryan MacDonald 0 FX 0 0 Danny Maassen 2 R 1 3 Kevin Whelan X2 0 Heat 1 - Richard Lawson ; Edward Kennett ; James Sarjeant ; Keiran Douglas ; (4-2)(4-2)57.3 Heat 2 - Hynek Stichauer ; Danny Maassen ; Victor Palovaara ; Ryan MacDonald ; (4-2)(8-4)59.9 Heat 3 - (re-run)Aaron Summers ; Kasper Lykke Nielsen ; Hynek Stichauer ; Fernando Garcia(Fx) ; (4-2)(12-6)57.7 Heat 4 - Nick Morris ; Victor Palovaara ; Fernando Garcia ; Danny Maassen(R) ; (5-1)(17-7)59.5 Heat 5 - Aaron Summers ; Edward Kennett (TR) ; Hynek Stichauer ; Keiran Douglas ; (4-4)(21-11)58.0 Heat 6 - Richard Lawson ; James Sarjeant ; Fernando Garcia ; Ryan MacDonald(FX) ; (5-1)(26-12)awarded no time Heat 7 - Edward Kennett, Nick Morris ; Kasper Lykke Nielsen ; Victor Palovaara ; (2-4)(28-16)58.4 Heat 8 - James Sarjeant ; Hynek Stichauer ; Danny Maassen ; Keiran Douglas ; (5-1)(33-17)59.4 Heat 9 - Aaron Summers ;James Sarjeant ; Fernando Garcia ; Ryan MacDonald ; (5-1)(38-18)59.0 Heat 10 - Richard Lawson ; Kasper Lykke Nielsen ;James Sarjeant ; Kevin Whelan (X2) ; (4-2)(42-20)59.9