Patched up Glasgow, with 5 guests, easily beat Redcar in a play-off shoot out to put themselves almost into the semi-finals.
With Richard Lawson at Belle Vue and an injury to Jack Smith on Thursday, it left only Aaron Summers and Richie Worrall as the only contracted Tigers in the meeting.
Redcar too had their problems with Jason Garrity out injured and Danny Ayres ill. Bears tried to use Liam Carr but he was ineligible due to the 8 day rule, David Wallinger stepping in. That probably tipped the balance back into Glasgow’s favour as reserve had looked like being a problem area for the home side.
It was vital Glasgow got off to a good start and Richie Worrall continued his good form with a win from Ben Barker. Crucially Simon Lambert was third.
Lambert then came out and surprisingly won heat 2 from Nathan Greaves who had been Ipswich’s match winner on Wednesday night. Tom Woolley took another vital point in third.
Ben Barker easily won heat 3 but Jake Allen and Stuart Robson took the minor places.
Aaron Summers finally made a start in heat 4 but looked slow but a mistake by Charles Wright on the third lap allowed him to pull clear. Woolley unfortunately couldn’t repeat his heat 2 result.
Robson blasted up the inside of Barker to win heat 5 as Tigers extended their lead to 6 before Worrall just beat a fast closing Wright in heat 6, with Lambert third.
The next two heats were shared as Glasgow maintained their 8 point lead, before a tough first bend in heat 9 saw Allen fall. Despite no exclusions we had to wait almost to the end of the two minutes for Greaves to appear from the pits. The referee missing that he had left the track. It made no difference though, as Allen made the start and Robson passed both Bears down the back straight for the 5-1.
Wright made a good start in heat 10 but was third by the back straight as Tigers extended their lead to 14, through Worrall and Summers.
The final throw of the dice by Bears was the TR in heat 11 but Barker got nowhere near Summers and Glasgow moved onto match point, 14 ahead.
The match was duly wrapped up by another 5-1 in heat 12 although it appeared as if Lambert got a flyer, Robson shepherding him around ahead of Greaves.
Tigers next mission was to stop Redcar picking up a consolation point and Worrall’s win in heat 13 meant it was mission accomplished. Summers dropping his first points in finishing last.
Allen and Lambert wrapped up a good night by them with a heat 14 maximum before Barker spoiled Worrall’s own maximum by flying around him on the second bend in the last heat.
For a match that meant so much to both teams, it appeared only one side wanted to win, Redcar being very disappointing, with only Barker and to a lesser extent Wright riding well. Nathan Greaves couldn’t repeat his score for Ipswich, while Andersen was poor.
Glasgow had no failures with everyone contributing, especially Simon Lambert at reserve, although hopefully he’s not as good tomorrow! Richie Worrall was outstanding again and Aaron Summers seemed to re-discover his gating boots.
Tigers only need a draw tomorrow but in truth even a narrow defeat would mean Redcar having to win at Newcastle and Sheffield by about 40 points, surely an impossible task.
Glasgow Tigers 56 1 Richie Worrall 3 3 3 3 2 14 2 Dan Bewley R/R 3 Stuart Robson(G) 1* 3 2* 2* 0 8+3 4 Jake Allen (G) 2 1 2 3 3 11 5 Aaron Summers 3 3 2* 3 0 11+1 6 Simon Lambert 1 3 1 1* 0 3 2* 11+2 7 Tom Woolley 1 0 0 8 Ryan MacDonald DNR Redcar Bears 36 1 Ben Barker 2 3 2 4 1* 3 15+1 2 Ellis Perks 0 0 1* 0 1+1 3 Jason Garrity R/R 4 Jonas B Andersen 0 2 0 0 0 2 5 Charles Wright 2 2 1 1 2 1 9 6 Nathan Greaves 2 3 0 1* 1 1 8+1 7 David Wallinger 0 1* 0 1+1 8 Gavin Parr DNR Heat 1: Worrall, Barker, Lambert, Perks 56.68 (4-2)(4-2) Heat 2: Lambert, Greaves, Woolley, Wallinger 58.61 (4-2)(8-4) Heat 3: Barker, Allen, Robson, Andersen 57.57 (3-3)(11-7) Heat 4: Summers, Wright, Wallinger, Woolley 58.88 (3-3)(14-10) Heat 5: Robson, Barker, Allen, Perks 57.31 (4-2)(18-12) Heat 6: (re-run)Worrall, Wright, Lambert, Wallinger 58.32 (4-2)(22-14) Heat 7: Summers, Andersen, Perks, Woolley 59.36 (3-3)(25-17) Heat 8: Greaves, Allen, Lambert, Perks 59.74 (3-3)(28-20) Heat 9: (2 re-runs) Allen, Robson, Wright, Greaves 58.88 (5-1)(33-21) Heat 10: Worrall, Summers, Wright, Andersen 58.64 (5-1)(38-22) Heat 11: Summers, Barker (TR), Greaves, Lambert 58.41 (3-5)(41-27) Heat 12: Lambert, Robson, Greaves, Andersen 60.32 (5-1)(46-28) Heat 13: Worrall, Wright, Barker, Summers 58.57 (3-3)(49-31) Heat 14: Allen, Lambert, Greaves, Andersen 59.76 (5-1)(54-32) Heat 15: Barker, Worrall, Wright, Robson 58.05 (2-4)(56-36)