Glasgow erased last week’s disappointing play off defeat by winning their first trophy in 5 years and their first Knock out Cup since 1994 in front of a large and enthusastic home support.
After Sunday’s superb draw at Newcastle in the first leg, Tigers were favourites to finish the job on home shale and they didn’t disappoint to send the home fans into the close season on a high.
Newcastle actually made a good start, Robert Lambert taking heat 1 and it looked like they would take another one as Ashley Morris led heat 2. Unfortunately Danny Ayres clipped his back wheel at the start of the second lap, with Ayres taking a spectacular fall, Morris also coming down. After a delay and with Ayres off to hospital, it was left to Arthur Sissis to take the win in the re-run.
Tigers then took control with Rene Bach going from last to second in heat 3 behind Aaron Summers, while Richard Lawson and Sissis then did the same to Steve Worrall to put Tigers 8 up.
Lambert passed Summers in heat 5 to limit the damage to a 4-2 to the Tigers, before Richie won the battle of the Worralls in heat 6.
Newcastle steadied the ship with successive 3-3s in heats 7,8 and 9 to leave Glasgow 12 up.
R Worrall and Lunna then took a 5-1 in heat 10 before Lambert superbly passed Lawson in heat 11 for the Diamonds only heat advantage.
The cup was then won with a Summers/Sissis maximum in heat 12 and the celebrations could begin!
Lawson and S Worrall then passed and re-passed for almost the entire race for third in heat 13, before the home man prevailed and Tigers put the gloss on a great night by finishing with two 5-1s.
Whilst the cup was probably won and lost at Brough Park, it was no less than Glasgow deserved as they knocked out three of the top 4 teams in the league on their way to winning the trophy.
All of the home men, with the exception of the unfortunate Ayres, enjoyed a good night, with Richie Worral and Bach only dropping points to Lambert. While guest Sissis showed his love of the Ashfield track again, with another double figure score.
So Glasgow finally have finally won a trophy in the new Ashfield era and here’s hoping for many more in 2017!!!
Glasgow Tigers 59 Newcastle Diamonds 31 Knockout Cup Final, 2nd leg Glasgow win on aggregate 104-76 24/10/2016 Glasgow Tigers Richie Worrall 2 3 3 3 11 Nike Lunna 1* 1 3 2' 7 + 2 Aaron Summers 3 1 2 3 2' 11 + 1 Rene Bach 2* 3 1' 2' 8 + 3 Richard Lawson 3 3 2 1 3 12 Arthur Sissis 3 2* F 0 0 2' 3 10 + 1 Danny Ayres Fx 0 Newcastle Diamonds Robert Lambert 3 2 3 2 0 10 Victor Palovaara R R 0 1* 1 2 + 1 Matej Kus R/R 0 Ludvig Lindgren 1 2 1 1 1 6 Steve Worrall 1 2 3 0 1 7 Ashley Morris 1* Fx 2 0 0 3 + 1 Danny Phillips 2 0 1* 0 0 3 + 1 Heat 1 - Robert Lambert ; Richie Worrall ; Nike Lunna ; Victor Palovaara(R) ; 56.63 (3-3)(3-3) Heat 2 - (re-run)Arthur Sissis ; Danny Phillips ; Ashley Morris ; Danny Ayres(Fx) ; 57.27 (3-3)(6-6) Heat 3 - Aaron Summers ; Rene Bach ; Ludvig Lindgren ; Victor Palovaara(R) ; 56.74 (5-1)(11-7) Heat 4 - Richard Lawson ; Arthur Sissis ; Steve Worrall ; Danny Phillips ; 57.02 (5-1)(16-8) Heat 5 - Rene Bach ; Robert Lambert ; Aaron Summers ; Victor Palovaara ; 57.16 (4-2)(20-10) Heat 6 - (2 re-runs)Richie Worrall ; Steve Worrall ; Nike Lunna ; Ashley Morris(Fx) ; 57.18 (4-2)(24-12) Heat 7 - Richard Lawson ; Ludvig Lindgren ; Danny Phillips ; Arthur Sissis(F) ; 58.19 (3-3)(27-15) Heat 8 - Nike Lunna ; Ashley Morris ; Victor Palovaara ; Arthur Sissis ; 58.21 (3-3)(30-18) Heat 9 - Steve Worrall ; Aaron Summers ; Rene Bach ; Danny Phillips ; 57.4 (3-3)(33-21) Heat 10 - Richie Worrall ; Nike Lunna ; Ludvig Lindgren ; Ashley Morris ; 57.07 (5-1)(38-22) Heat 11 - Robert Lambert ; Richard Lawson ; Victor Palovaara ; Arthur Sissis ; 57.71 (2-4)(40-26) Heat 12 - Aaron Summers ; Arthur Sissis ; Ludvig Lindgren ; Ashley Morris ; 58.49 (5-1)(45-27) Heat 13 - Richie Worrall ; Robert Lambert ; Richard Lawson ; Steve Worrall ; 57.59 (4-2)(49-29) Heat 14 - Arthur Sissis ; Rene Bach ; Ludvig Lindgren ; Danny Phillips ; 59.58 (5-1)(54-30) Heat 15 - Richard Lawson ; Aaron Summers ; Steve Worrall ; Robert Lambert ; 59.1 (5-1)(59-31)