Glasgow got their season back on track with a easier than expected win over injury hit Scunthorpe.
The Scorpions, one of the favourites for the league, had arrived with former Tiger Aaron Summers at no2 with R/R in operation for Steve Worrall.
It was Summers who took the opening heat at the second attempt, after Lewis Kerr had fallen, passing Richie Worrall.
It took three attempts to run heat 2, after falls for Danny Phillips, James Sarjeant and Gino Manzares. Manzares taking the win from Sarjeant.
Heat 3 saw another faller, this time Jake Allen. With the Tigers on a 5-1, the referee decided he had deliberately stayed down, meaning Josh Auty was off 15m in the re-run. Tigers duly took the 5-1.
The rule was invoked again in heat 4, when Jason Garrity seemed to stay down too long after spinning out on the 4th bend. Chris Harris had passed Gino Manzares on the back straight to join his partner Sarjeant. Another 5-1 resulted and Scunthorpe found themselves down to 5 riders after Garrity had aggravated an arm injury and pulled out.
Tigers looked like they would take another 5-1 in heat 5 but Claus Vissing locked up on the third bend and was passed by both Scorpions.
Summers took his second win in heat 6, to keep the gap at 6 before Harris won an early battle with Auty to take heat 7.
Kerr took heat 8 from Summers, with Sarjeant third, extending Tigers lead to 8.
The Vissing/Starke duo took a 5-1 in heat 9 and then Worrall rode around Auty on the 4th bend to take heat 10.
Summers took the lead in heat 11 with Harris on his tail, the home man switched to the inside coming down the home straight on the 1st lap, taking the lead going into the second lap. Summers then passed him down the back straight before Harris again took the lead around the outside of the 4th bend . This time he hung on to win.
Auty got a flier to win heat 12 but the race was shared.
After Worrall had touched the tapes in heat 13, Harris and Allen had a superb battle where they rode side by side for almost the entire race before Harris edged ahead on the last lap.
Starke blasted around Allen to take heat 14 to maintain his maximum hopes, as Tigers extended their lead to 14.
Harris decided to sit out heat 15 but Starke put his maximum on the line and took a comfortable second behind Worrall to remain unbeaten.
This meeting was slow to get going due to the amount of re-runs but once the track settled down, we saw some great racing, with Chris Harris worth the admission alone with some brilliant overtaking. Paul Starke wasn’t as spectacular but never looked like being beaten as he returned to form with a bang. All of the top 5 won a race and but for a couple of mistakes, Tigers would’ve had their biggest win of the season.
The visitors struggled to cope with losing Jason Garrity, although it’s fair to say the IRR scored more than Garrity’s early showings suggested. Aaron Summers was the best of the visitors, although he faded near the end of the meeting, whilst Auty and Allen had some great battles with Harris.
So Glasgow start this difficult June with an easy win and go into tomorrow’s match at Workington in better spirits. A win there and the Shield SF will beckon.
It doesn’t get any easier either in the league with a strong looking Peterborough side the next visitors next Friday.
Glasgow Tigers 54 Scunthorpe Scorpions 36 SGBC 1/6/2018 Glasgow Tigers Richie Worrall 2 1* 3 XT 3 9 + 1 Lewis Kerr Fx 2 3 0 5 Claus Vissing 3 R 3 2 8 Paul Starke 2* 3 2* 3 2* 12 + 3 Chris Harris 3 3 3 3 12 Jack Thomas 1* 0 0 1 2 + 1 James Sarjeant 2 2* 1 1* 0 6 + 2 Scunthorpe Scorpions Steve Worrall R/R 0 Aaron Summers 3 1* 3 2 2 1* R 12 + 2 Josh Auty 1 2 2 1* 3 1 10 + 1 Jake Allen Fx 2 1* 1* 2 2 8 + 2 Jason Garrity 1 Fx injured R/R 1 Danny Phillips Fx 0 0 0 0 Gino Manzares 3 1 0 1 0 5 Heat 1 - (re-run) Aaron Summers ; Richie Worrall ; Jason Garrity ; Lewis Kerr(Fx) ; 57.02 (2-4)(2-4) Heat 2 - (2 re-runs)Gino Manzares ; James Sarjeant ; Jack Thomas ; Danny Phillips(Fx) ; 58.85 (3-3)(5-7) Heat 3 - (re-run)Claus Vissing ; Paul Starke ; Josh Auty(15m) ; Jake Allen(Fx) ; 58.39 (5-1)(10-8) Heat 4 - (re-run)Chris Harris ; James Sarjeant ; Gino Manzares(15m) ; Jason Garrity(Fx) ; 58.77 (5-1)(15-9) Heat 5 - Paul Starke ; Jake Allen ; Aaron Summers ; Claus Vissing(R) ; 58.44 (3-3)(18-12) Heat 6 - Aaron Summers ; Lewis Kerr ; Richie Worrall ; Danny Phillips ; 58.14 (3-3)(21-15) Heat 7 - Chris Harris ; Josh Auty ; Jake Allen ; Jack Thomas ; 57.62 (3-3)(24-18) Heat 8 - Lewis Kerr ; Aaron Summers ; James Sarjeant ; Gino Manzares(frmt) ;58.41 (4-2)(28-20) Heat 9 - Claus Vissing ; Paul Starke ; Gino Manzares ; Danny Phillips ; 59.15 (5-1)(33-21) Heat 10 - Richie Worrall ; Josh Auty ; Jake Allen ; Lewis Kerr ; 57.7 (3-3)(36-24) Heat 11 - Chris Harris ; Aaron Summers ; Josh Auty ; Jack Thomas ;57.96 (3-3)(39-27) Heat 12 - Josh Auty ; Claus Vissing ; James Sarjeant ; Gino Manzares ; 58.75 (3-3)(42-30) Heat 13 - Chris Harris ; Jake Allen ; Aaron Summers ; James Sarjeant ; Richie Worrall (XT) ; 58.05 (3-3)(45-33) Heat 14 - Paul Starke ; Jake Allen ; Jack Thomas ; Danny Phillips ; 58.42 (4-2)(49-35) Heat 15 - Richie Worrall ; Paul Starke ; Josh Auty ; Aaron Summers ; 58.58 (5-1)(54-36)