Glasgow continued their unbeaten home record in the Premier League with a 53-40 win over Ipswich Witches.
The Tigers recorded their first league win since May 4th with an easier than expected win over a Witches side reliant on Richie Worrall in an incident packed and drawn out meeting.
Both sides were on their third match in as many days, with Glasgow using R/R for the injured Christian Henry and Aaron Fox in for Dimitri Berge.
Kevin Wolbert took heat 1 ahead of Worrall with Kasper Lyyke passing Cameron Heeps who suffered bike problems, for third.
Adam Ellis was quick out of the start in heat 2 and despite pressure from Lyyke took the win. Behind him, Fox led Ritchie Hawkins but he didn’t look comfortable and Hawkins got past of the second lap.
Gino Manzares destroyed the tapes in heat 3, which brought Ellis out. He made the start again with Theo Pijper and Anders Thomsen comfortable behind him until Anders slid off at the start of the second lap. He was down for a time, although he walked back to the pits but withdrew from the meeting. Theo easily won the re-run.
Hawkins was another faller on the first bend in heat 4 and was duly disqualified. His partner Tungate won the re-run to keep the scores level.
Theo looked good for a heat 5 win only for Worrall to pass him down the back straight on lap 2. Lyyke was an easy third.
With Rusty Harrison in for R/R in heat 6, Tigers were looking to break the deadlock and he took an easy win. Behind him Kevin had to work hard to pass Ellis but despite coming close he had to settle for third.
Rusty followed that win with another in heat 7, whilst Kasper had to fend off Gino Manzares third bend charges to take the 5-1
Heeps finally got going, taking heat 8 but Tigers shared the race.
Heat 9 was heading for another home 5-1, when Ellis locked up on the 4th bend and high sided over his handlebars. The race was awarded, whilst Ellis was stretchered off.
After a delay, heat 10 got under way with Kevin and Theo taking another 5-1 over Risager and the black and white helmet of Manzares.
Ipswich were now 14 down so immediately used the TR again with Worrall. Rusty made the start but allowed Worrall to come up the inside out of the 2nd bend. The two of them rode neck and neck for a lap before Worrall pulled away. Heeps picking up the point for a 7-2.
Hawkins made it easy for the home reserves in heat 12 by going through the tapes and having to start off 15m. Aaron Fox made the start but had Risager on his tail. He held on until he made an error on the 4th bend, 2nd lap and Risager passed him.
It was Glasgow from the tapes in heat 13 but Harrison was passed again by Worrall coming out of the 2nd bend but he passed him on the third bend only for Worrall to regain his lead on the next bend. Tigers were now 46-35 up and close to victory.
They duly wrapped it up in heat 14 with a Pijper/Lyyke 4-2 over Manzares although Theo came in from a lot of pressure. He seemed to be troubled by his knee after the race had ended.
Worrall made a rare start in heat 15 to win, with Wolbert passing Harrison and Risager on the first lap for second. Rusty an easy third.
Tigers won this match more comfortably than it looked possible at one stage, despite being down to 5 riders after heat 3. With everyone paid for a win and the lowest home scorer getting 8, the visitors, Worrall apart, had no answer.
For the second week in a row, the home top 3 all scored double figures and it was a good backs to the wall performance. For the Witches, the unfortunate Ellis and Tungate showed well early on but with their second top scorer only getting 6, they never looked like taking advantage of the weakened home side.
Tigers will be hoping their quiet week will allow the walking wounded time to return next week against Plymouth.
Scorers:
Glasgow Pijper 13+1, Wolbert 12, Harrison 11+2, Lyyke 9+4, Fox 8+1, Thomsen 0, Macdonald (no8) DNR
Ipswich Worrall 16, Tungate 6, Risager 5+1, Ellis 5, Heeps 4, Manzares 3, Hawkins 1
<report by Derek Watson>