Glasgow agonisingly went out of the play-offs, after a dramatic night at Ashfield, in a last heat decider.
Trailing by 8 points from the first leg, they made the perfect start as they quickly took a 10 point lead after heat 4 to lead overall by 2. Sheffield weren’t about to lie down however, with Josh Bates, who had been poor up until then, easily winning heat 5, while Aaron Summers had to work overtime to pass Stuart Robson to prevent a 1-5.
Heat 6 was an easy win for Richie Worrall, with Arthur Sissis second but behind them, Nike Lunna and Kyle Howarth were having a ding dong battle with the home man looking as if he had passed the Sheffield man going into the third bend on the last lap but he was going too fast and crashed into the fence.
Fernando Garcia then fell in heat 7 in another shared heat before Sheffield re took the lead overall with an easy 5-1 in heat 8, Lunna looking slow after his crash. It was back level again in the next one with Howarth failing to move off the line with Summers and Rene Bach taking the 5-1.
Lunna breiefly lead Sissis for third in heat 10 but the Australian was ahead by the end of the first lap to maintain the stalemate.
With the tension mounting, heat 11 was another 3-3, to keep the overall scores level.
Danny Ayres tried to go around both Sheffield men on the opening bends of heat 12, coming a cropper, with Ayres reckoning he had been knocked off, the ref didnt agree and again another home chance had gone.
Heat 13 looked like the home side’s best bet to break the deadlock with the unbeaten Worrall and Lawson out but it was to end in disaster! They were on a 5-1 going down the back straight on the opening lap but Worrall got too close to his partner, allowing Robson to slip up his inside coming out of the 4th bend. Worrall then slipped to the back after Howarth rode around him on the second lap. Worse was to follow, when on the last lap, Lawson’s chain came off entering the third bend causing Worrall to fall and allowing both Sheffield men through for a fortunate 5-1.
The home side now needed at least a 3-3 in heat 14 for a last heat decider and going down the back straight it looked better than that, with them on a 4-2 but Garcia went into the third bend far too fast and piled into the fence. After a delay as he was taken off in the ambulance with a leg injury, it was up to Bach to keep the home side in it.
He missed the start and Sissis lead with Bach all over him for 3 laps, then going into the final lap he lined him up off the second bend and passed him down the back straight to take the win, setting up a last heat decider. Glasgow needed a 5-1 to force extra heats and for two bends they had it but Howarth had the speed down the back straight to pass Lawson for the tie winning second place.
Sheffield probably deserved to win over the two legs as they made the least amount of mistakes and took advantage of Glasgow’s misfortunes, two chain breaks over the two legs, gifting them 4 points.
Glasgow’s tail end certainly didn’t fire, although Lunna looked impressive until his heat 6 fall, which seemed to affect him. The fact that Cameron Heeps scored paid 6 without actually beating an opponent, sums up their night.
The home heat leaders kept them in it but had too much to do, while Sheffield looked a more compact team and had the match winning reserve in Arthur Sissis.
Glasgow will now need to pick themselves up for one final chance of glory, in the Cup Final this coming Sunday and Monday and will need to hope that someone outwith the top 4 can provide enough points to give them a chance of winning.
Finally, it was possibly co-incidence but all of Sheffield’s heat advantages came after a track grade!!
Glasgow Tigers 48 Sheffield Tigers 42 PLPO S-F 2nd leg 20/10/2016 Sheffield win on aggregate 91-89 Glasgow Tigers Richie Worrall 3 3 3 F 9 Nike Lunna 2* F 1 0 3 + 1 Aaron Summers 3 2 3 3 3 14 Rene Bach 2* 0 2* 3 7 + 2 Richard Lawson 3 3 3 1 1 11 Fernando Garcia 1* F 0 Fx 1 + 1 Danny Ayres 2 1 0 Fx 3 Sheffield Tigers Stuart Robson 1 1 2 1* 3 0 8 + 1 Josh Bates 0 1 3 3 2 9 Cameron Heeps F 1* 1* 1* 3 + 3 Simon Stead R/R 0 Kyle Howarth 2 1* R 2 2* 2 9 + 2 Arthur Sissis 3 2 2* 1* 2 2 12 + 2 Nathan Greaves 0 0 1 1 Heat 1 - Richie Worrall ; Nike Lunna ; Stuart Robson ; Josh Bates ; 56.77 (5-1)(5-1) Heat 2 - Arthur Sissis ; Danny Ayres ; Fernando Garcia ; Nathan Greaves ; 57.29 (3-3)(8-4) Heat 3 - Aaron Summers ; Rene Bach ; Josh Bates ; Cameron Heeps(F) ; 56.36 (5-1)(13-5) Heat 4 - Richard Lawson ; Kyle Howarth ; Danny Ayres ; Nathan Greaves ; 57.0 (4-2)(17-7) Heat 5 - Josh Bates ; Aaron Summers ; Stuart Robson ; Rene Bach ; 57.68 (2-4)(19-11) Heat 6 - Richie Worrall ; Arthur Sissis ; Kyle Howarth ; Nike Lunna(F) ; 58.0 (3-3)(22-14) Heat 7 - Richard Lawson ; Stuart Robson ; Cameron Heeps ; Fernando Garcia(F) ; 58.0 (3-3)(25-17) Heat 8 - Josh Bates ; Arthur Sissis ; Nike Lunna ; Danny Ayres ; 58.25 (1-5)(26-22) Heat 9 - Aaron Summers ; Rene Bach ; Nathan Greaves ; Kyle Howarth(R) ; 59.13 (5-1)(31-23) Heat 10 - Richie Worrall ; Kyle Howarth ; Arthur Sissis ; Nike Lunna ; 58.4 (3-3)(34-26) Heat 11 - Richard Lawson ; Josh Bates ; Stuart Robson ; Fernando Garcia ; 58.24 (3-3)(37-29) Heat 12 - (re-run)Aaron Summers ; Arthur Sissis ; Cameron Heeps ; Danny Ayres(Fx) ; 58.02 (3-3)(40-32) Heat 13 - Stuart Robson ; Kyle Howarth ; Richard Lawson ; Richie Worrall(F) ; 59.04 (1-5)(41-37) Heat 14 - (re-run)Rene Bach ; Arthur Sissis ; Cameron Heeps ; Fernando Garcia(Fx) ; 58.23 (3-3)(44-40) Heat 15 - Aaron Summers ; Kyle Howarth ; Richard Lawson ; Stuart Robson ; 58.91 (4-2)(48-42)