Glasgow 35 Newcastle 55 KOC Q-F 2nd leg Agg 72-108.
Tigers hadn’t overturned a 16 point KOC deficit since 1983 but hadn’t lost a two legged cup tie to the Diamonds since 1977, so something had to give today. Unfortunately it was the latter as a patched up home side were no match for the Diamonds top 4.
With Rusty Harrison and Dimitri Berge already injured, the last thing they needed was Kevin Wolbert pulling out through illness and Victor Palovaara also being injured the night before in Poland. Matthew Wethers, Mason Campton and Danny Phillips were drafted in as guests. Diamonds were without Chris Mills and Lewis Rose with Aaron Fox guesting with R/R also operating.
Danny King won the opening heat by a mile and smashed the track record in the process being 0.8 faster than Craig Cook. Behind him Campton had blocked his partner Theo Pijper on the opening bends allowing Simon Nielsen through into third, the home captain not being able to regain the position.
Tigers took the lead in heat two with an unlikely 5-1 when both Danny Phillips and Kasper Lyyke made the gate finishing well ahead of Nielsen and Aaron Fox. It was short lived however with both Stuart Robson and Lewis Kerr getting the better of Matthew Wethers in a first bend battle to take the 5-1 although Kerr very nearly came to grief on the last lap.
Wethers was out again in heat 4 which he won with ease ahead of Ludvig Lindgren who held off a last bend attempt by Lykke to pass him. Lyyke had earlier passed Fox for the point.
King scorched to another win in heat 5 but with Aarnio second and Lyyke passing Nielsen for third the score remained level at 15-15.
Campton made another good gate in heat 6 with Lindgren just getting the better of Pijper on the second bend. Lindgren then chased down Campton getting past him going into the third lap. Fox then slid off on the first bend of the third lap and the race was awarded. Fox withdrawing from the meeting. Robson and Kerr took another easy 5-1 in heat 7 ahead of Wethers and Phillips to take Newcastle 4 up and 20 on aggregate.
Heat 8 saw Lindgren take an early lead with Campton second and Lyyke third. Lyyke passed Campton on the inside coming out of the 4th bend on the third lap and drifted wide, Campton clipping his back wheel and coming off halfway down the straight. Lyyke was excluded with Campton awarded second. Despite walking away he later withdrew from the meeting.
Heat 9 saw Aarnio take the lead with the Diamonds behind him but Nielsen seemed to impede Lindgren on the 4th bend allowing Lyyke to pass both of them around the outside. Lindgren then got passed Lyyke on the second bend and repeated the move on Aarnio a lap later, finally Nielsen passed Lyyke around the outside of the last bend for a 4-2!!
Robson and Kerr were out again in heat 10 but Pijper managed to split them on the second bend, Robson taking the win.
It was 3 riders only in heat 11 with King winning by the length of a straight from Lyyke and Wethers.
Robson took an early lead in heat 12 with Phillips a surprise second from Nielsen. Aarnio tried an outside run into bend 3 but went in too fast and fell off. He took an ambulance ride back and became the third rider to withdraw. Newcastle took an easy 5-1 in the re-run.
Pijper made the start in heat 13 but his attempt to block Lindgren’s outside run failed and he impeded Wethers allowing King who was last to slip into third. King had a couple of attempts to get near Pijper but was losing ground entering the third bend too quickly and locking up. The resultant 4-2 took the score to 31-47.
Kerr won heat 14 with Lyyke passing Nielsen at the end of the opening lap with Phillips a distant 4th.
King made the start in heat 15 with Wethers and Pijper briefly behind him until Robson passed Pijper down the back straight. Try as he might he couldn’t get near Wethers for his maximum.
The tie was effectively over before the meeting had started with the Tigers again hit by missing riders. In fact they only finished with 4!!! Any excitement was due to Ludvig Lindgren ‘s bursts from the back especially his 4th to 1st in heat 9.
Tigers guests didn’t actually ride that badly, Campton was unlucky and would’ve scored more, Phillips looked a different rider than his last appearance while Wethers couldn’t match Rusty Harrison’s normal score but still got a useful 8. Newcastle’s top 4 only lost one heat apiece and will now attempt to stop the Edinburgh juggernaut in the semi final.
Glasgow: Pijper 5+1, Campton(G) 6, Wolbert R/R (2+1), Aarnio 4, Wethers(G) 8+1, Lyyke 8+2, Phillips(G) 4
Newcastle: King 13, Rose R/R (4), Robson 13+1, Kerr 9+1, Lindgren 14, Nielsen 7+1, Fox (G) 0
<Meeting report by Derek Watson>