It may only be our third home fixture of this new season – but the main event starts this Sunday, as we open our Premier League account against the Redcar Bears at Ashfield.
We claimed a confidence boosting win against Rye House last week, albeit not enough to make progress in the KOC, however that sets us up nicely for the visit of the Bears who have displayed inconsistent form so far this year.
The Bears are led by former Edinburgh rider, the mop haired Aaron Summers who has developed into a genuine out and out No.1. Adding top end strength are the vastly experienced Dane Ulrich Ostergaard and former Ashfield Gold Helmet winner, Czech Matej Kus.
In recent weeks the Bears have benefitted from having high scoring Micky Dyer as reserve, a rider who has previously taken well to Ashfield. Add in the scoring potential of Carl Wilkinson and Hugh Skidmore and clearly Redcar have a team who are well capable of giving our Tigers a tough afternoon.
We’ve listed 6 of the Bears, and saved their final rider to last. Making up the Redcar team is a very familiar face to all Tigers fans, and a rider who is certain to be on a mission this Sunday, enter one Mitchell Davey!
Can the Tigers maintain our solid home form? Can we not only claim a win, but by a sufficient margin to take all 3 points on offer ..or will the Bears out fight us? You will have to be at Ashfield this Sunday to find out!
In other news, we can now confirm that we will be bringing Edinburgh back to Ashfield, to complete our postponed League Cup tie, on Sunday 26th May – when was the last time we haven’t hosted our nearest and dearest until that stage of the season …answers on a postcard (well, email!) please.
Some worthy congratulations too to young Joe Jacobs who last night scored 7 points (including an exclusion) in the U21 British Final at Wolverhampton. Just 2 more points could have earned him a semi final place, nonetheless a very good and encouraging effort by Joe. The event was won by Robert Branford, second was Kyle Howarth and third went to the exciting Jason Garrity.
Thank you to everyone who visited our new Merchandise stall last Sunday, seems that the Tigers pens, mugs, programme boards, photos and jackets are most popular so far! More stock being added every week, so even if you have had a peek, it’s worth taking another on Sunday.
See you on Sunday (why not invite a friend along too?)