Glasgow created history when they reached their first League Championship Play off final after a tense and exciting second leg at Ashfield.
Somerset had won the first leg by 6 points and were still favourites to reach the final after their earlier win at Glasgow plus their successful KOC Final victory where they only lost the second leg by 4 points.
Glasgow quickly overcame that deficit with two 5-1s in the opening four heats. Heat 2 was wrongly awarded to the home side after Danny Ayres fell at the start of the second lap, although Somerset didnt appear to make much complaint at the time. James Sarjeant then joined captain Aaron Summers in a heat 4, 5-1 over Josh Garjczonek.
Somerset then fought back with a 5-1 of their own after Kauko Nieminen came down trying to pass Paul Starke. The re-run actually working in their favour as they were only 4-2 up in the original staging. The fall aggravating Nieminen’s collar bone injury which looks like it will rule him out of the final.
Grajczonek then won heat 6 and Summers heat 7 as both heats were shared.
Heat 8 looked like it would be a chance for the Tigers to draw level after a superb gate from James Sarjeant and a good first bend from Victor Palovaara but the referee thought otherwise, pulling Sarjeant back for jumping the start, which looked like a poor decision. The Rebels took full advantage gating on a 5-1 but Sarjeant pulled off a superb back straight pass on Starke to restrict them to a 4-2.
Sarjeant then produced another superb opening bend to ride around Grajczonek in heat 9 with Nick Morris in third to put the aggregate score back to 2 down.
The Rebels weren’t finished yet, with Richie Worrall winning heat 10 with Richard Lawson just getting the better of Charles Wright for the second place.
Tigers then drew level on aggregate with another brilliant ride from Sarjeant and Summers over Brady Kurtz and Starke.
It looked as if that would be to no avail as the Rebels both gated in heat 12. Andersen seemed to get into trouble on the third bend which caused Hynek Stichauer to go wider than intended and he came off and was excluded.
It looked like the re-run was going the same way but for a superb last bend pass by Sarjeant to take second place from Andersen on the run in to the line.
It was all square again after another home 4-2 in heat 13 after Grajczonek’s bike stopped at the start, with Summers winning the race.
Heat 14 had a messy opening two bends with Morris passing Worrall coming out of the corner. Andersen tried the same move but knocked off Sarjeant going down the back straight and was excluded. Worrall then took the re-start to set up a last heat decider with the sides level.
Somerset surprisingly took 1 and 3 and this seemed to back fire with Summers and Lawson making good starts with Kurtz.Kurtz managed to get in between them but couldnt catch Summers. Lawson then spent the first 3 laps fending off Worrall before pulling clear on the last lap to send the Tigers through to the final.
It may not have been the most exciting racing although there were some good heats but the tension and atmosphere was probably the best it’s ever been at Ashfield. The meeting swung one way and another as both sides gave their all with James Sarjeant and Aaron Summers without doubt the difference between the sides. Sarjeant’s two passes proving the difference at the end. Somerset may point to heat 2 as a crucial decision but there is no guarantee a re-run would’ve finished any different. They did actually gain from a couple of other re-starts. Their main problem was a lack of heat winners and a poor score from guest Andersen.
Glasgow didn’t actually fire on all cylinders either, with low scores from Palovaara and the unfortunate Nieminen but the rest covered superbly to set up the all Scottish final next week. Edinburgh may not find it as easy this time around!!
Glasgow Tigers 49 Somerset Rebels 41 Premier League Play-off SF 2nd leg Glasgow win 91-89 on aggregate 11/10/2015 Glasgow Tigers Richard Lawson 3 2 2 1 1 9 Victor Palovaara 0 1* 0 0 1 + 1 Kauko Nieminen 0 Fx 0 Nick Morris 3 1 1 2 7 Aaron Summers 3 3 2* 3 3 14 + 1 Hynek Stichaeur 2* 0 fx 2 + 1 James Sarjeant 3 2* 2 3 3 2 1* 16 + 2 Somerset Rebels Brady Kurtz 2 3 1 2 2 10 Paul Starke 1* 2* 1 0 4 + 2 Charles Wright 1* 1* 1 3 6 + 2 Richie Worrall 2 2 3 3 0 10 Josh Grajczonek 1 3 2 R 6 Jonas B Andersen 1 F 3 1 X 5 Danny Ayres Fx 0 0 0 Heat 1 - (re-run)Richard Lawson ; Brady Kurtz ; Paul Starke ; Victor Palovaara ; 57.0 (3-3)(3-3) Heat 2 - (awarded)James Sarjeant ; Hynek Stichaeur ; Jonas B Andersen ; Danny Ayres(Fx) ; no time (5-1)(8-4) Heat 3 - Nick Morris ; Richie Worrall ; Charles Wright ; Kauko Nieminen ; 57.3 (3-3)(11-7) Heat 4 - Aaron Summers ; James Sarjeant ; Josh Grajczonek ; Jonas B Andersen(F) ; 58.3 (5-1)(16-8) Heat 5 - (re-run)Brady Kurtz ; Paul Starke ; Nick Morris ; Kauko Nieminen(Fx) ; 57.9 (1-5)(17-13) Heat 6 - Josh Grajczonek ; Richard Lawson ; Victor Palovaara ; Danny Ayres ; 58.5 (3-3)(20-16) Heat 7 - Aaron Summers ; Richie Worrall ; Charles Wright ; Hynek Stichaeur ; 58.2 (3-3)(23-19) Heat 8 - (re-run)Jonas B Andersen ; James Sarjeant ; Paul Starke ; Victor Palovaara ; 59.7 (2-4)(25-23) Heat 9 - James Sarjeant ; Josh Grajczonek ; Nick Morris ; Danny Ayres(F) ; 58.6 (4-2)(29-25) Heat 10 - (re-run)Richie Worrall ; Richard Lawson ; Charles Wright ; Victor Palovaara ; 58.6 (2-4)(31-29) Heat 11 - (re-run)James Sarjeant ; Aaron Summers ; Brady Kurtz ; Paul Starke ; 58.7 (5-1)(36-30) Heat 12 - (re-run)Charles Wright ; James Sarjeant ; Jonas B Andersen ; Hynek Stichauer (fx) 59.8 (2-4)(38-34) Heat 13 - Aaron Summers ; Brady Kurtz ; Richard Lawson ; Josh Grajczonek (ef) ; 58.2 (4-2)(42-36) Heat 14 - (re-run) Richie Worrall ;Nick Morris ; James Sarjeant ; Jonas B Andersen (X) ; 59.2 (3-3)(45-39) Heat 15 - Aaron Summers ; Brady Kurtz ; Richard Lawson ; Richie Worrall ; 59.1 (4-2)(49-41)