With Sunday afternoon’s battling Knock Out Cup success still fresh in our minds the Allied Vehicles Tigers are already gearing up for an intensive weekend of three meetings in successive days as we revert to Premier League action once again.
First up on Friday evening sees a tough start to that schedule as we visit defending league champions, the high flying Somerset.
The Rebels have been in sensational scoring form around their home patch this season, however did pick up a couple of injuries to top men Olly Allen and Pontus Aspgren in their visit to Newcastle on Sunday, it remains to be seen whether either will line-up against us.
Tigers will head South with renewed confidence following a much improved showing against the Rockets over the weekend, and will once again track Michael Palm-Toft at reserve, partnering the returning Kasper Lykke (more information on Kasper below).
The following evening the Tigers will make a quick return to Hoddesdon, scene of a 10 point defeat just a week before, to once again tackle the Rockets albeit this time for league points. Michael Palm-Toft will remain with the side for this trip, whilst the Tigers will look for the benefit of having ridden the track so recently as well as being able to introduce former Rocket Kasper Lykke back into the side.
Following two days on the road there will then be a long overnight trek back to Ashfield to face a strong Ipswich Witches side on Sunday afternoon – start time reverting back to the standard 3pm – partnering Kasper at reserve for the Tigers will be Edinburgh’s American ace Aaron Fox.
So lots of action ahead for the Tigers this weekend, how many league points can we add to our current tally?
Kasper on the rostrum
Our congratulations to Kasper on finishing 3rd in Sunday’s U19 European Championship semi-final in Elgane, Norway.
Whilst Kasper was disappointed to have missed our weekend meetings against former club Rye House, at least he made best use of his own weekend by scoring 12 points from 5 rides to qualify for the final where he’ll line-up alongside riders including David Bellego, Andrej Lebedev and Vaclav Milik.
Perry Praise
We all enjoyed watching the steady racing and style of young Brit Tom Perry at Ashfield on Sunday.
His 5 point tally – including a heat win in his first ever Ashfield ride – certainly played its part in our aggregate success. Tom was clearly as impressed with Glasgow as we were with him as can be read in his own words here.
Sunday Start Time
We wanted to say thank you for all the feedback we’ve received in response to our straw poll at Ashfield on Sunday night. It does appear that, for everyone who would prefer a later start time, there will be another supporter it wouldn’t!!
With Rye House agreeing that it would be beneficial to allow both sides some extra travel/preparation time for Sunday’s 2nd leg, it did make for a pleasant change to push-back our tapes-up and also to allow us to assess whether it suited from an operational and crowd level perspective.
As it happens there are a number of factors which would make it difficult for us to change to 5pm more regularly – an already registered fixture schedule, track staff availability for post meeting track maintenance and proximity to our Sunday night curfew being the main considerations.
Accordingly we are committed to retaining our 3pm start time in 2014.
So, we will revert to a Sunday @3pm start time for the remainder of this season, however listen out for some possible Monday night/mid week fixtures in the coming weeks as we work to claw back those meetings previously lost to the rain.
Millennium Merchandise
Just another reminder to ensure you place your order nice and early (ideally allowing up to 3 weeks) should you be looking to wear Tigers clothing merchandise at next month’s British GP, or even on your summer holidays!
Why not make the whole process simple and convenient by ordering online here
Enjoy your week, look forward to your company and support over this busy speedway weekend.