Having enjoyed some tough, but successful Premier League challenges last weekend the Allied Vehicles Tigers’ are back in the thick of the action this weekend and face an uphill battle to come out on top at Ashfield on Sunday.
The weather has intervened to prevent us being able to, for the final time in the league this season, travel through to the East of the country to face rivals Edinburgh tonight – another fixture to now be restaged. Tigers will now look forward to welcoming Rye House Rockets (who race at Workington tomorrow night) as this week’s visitors to Ashfield.
Sunday will be the Rockets’ third trip to Ashfield this season as they are certain to have revenge on their minds having been eliminated by Tigers in this season’s Knock Out Cup 1st round.
Despite having had a reasonably disappointing campaign, the Hertfordshire outfit still have lots of talent and capability in their line-up which is led by GB Internationalist Eddie Kennett, ably backed-up by British Finalist Jason Garrity who is currently producing some great form. However, in what must be a blow to the visitors, the experienced Jason Bunyan, who so sensationally aided our win at Workington last weekend, has been forced to withdraw from the Rockets’ Northern trip this weekend due to a non-speedway injury. His place will be taken by Berwick’s Alex Edberg.
Given Tigers recent uplift in home form, we would perhaps, in the normal course of events at least, feel reasonably confident at being able to clinch a win on Sunday – however, this meeting will now be far from a formality as Glasgow must contend with THREE riders missing from the side which would have lined-up tonight!
Kevin Wolbert has been, all season, scheduled to compete in his national championships back home in Germany this weekend, however Tigers will also have to face the Rockets’ without the services of either of Kasper Lykke and Victor Palovaara both of whom have progressed this season to reach this weekend’s FIM Europe U-21 Individual Final in Rybnik, Poland – originally the U-21 Final was scheduled to be staged this Sunday in Ukraine, however given the unrest in that part of the world the event was then relocated to Poland
Whilst clearly it can be considered as a coup for Glasgow to have young riders of international standard – and we extend our very best wishes to all three men – it is a big blow indeed that these fixtures have combined to force us to be without 3 riders on the same day. Under BSPA rules – FIM Europe events are currently not officially recognised – we therefore have not been granted guest facilities for Kasper or Victor, both of whom must be replaced by National League riders. We do however have the use of Rider Replacement for Kevin, and have booked Aaron Fox to ride at No.7 against the Rockets’ on Sunday.
With reasonably limited options in terms of NL rider availability to ride in Glasgow this weekend, we are pleased to have been able to book two young riders who are making clear progress in the sport.
Full line-ups:
GLASGOW: 1 Danny Phillips (G) 2 Theo Pijper (C) 3 Kevin Wölbert R/R 4 Tero Aarnio 5 Rusty Harrison 6 Luke Chessell (G) 7 Aaron Fox (G)
RYE HOUSE 1 Edward Kennett (C) 2 Benji Compton (G) 3 Steve Boxall 4 Jason Garrity 5 Anders Mellgren R/R 6 Oliver Greenwood 7 Alex Edberg (G)
Whilst of course we would much prefer to face any rival club with our full 1–7, intriguingly our enforced line-up – still led of course by our Testimonial men skipper Theo Pijper and Rusty Harrison both of whom have been in excellent home form of late – will still feel capable of claiming a league win on the day.
Last week’s Sunday speedway serving against Newcastle was full of outstanding race action, incidents and unpredictability – one week on there doesn’t look to be too much between the named Glasgow and Rye House sides, with some unknown quantities in both sides perhaps, which suggests that another highly interesting and tight battle should result.
Yes, Sunday will be yet another back-to-the-walls episode for the Tigers – however with the league points counting just as much as in any other meeting against any other opposition, the lads need your backing. The weather is set fair, we look forward to seeing you there – Team Tiger needs you!