Glasgow Thunder to Win
v Somerset, Posted 09/08/04

There was no parade prior to this meeting despite the weather looking fine due to the threat of thunder later on in the evening.

Glasgow didn't exactly make a storming start though. Heat 1 saw Stancl win easily but his partner McAllan was left at the back. A 4-2 reverse followed in heat 2 after Cockle fell whilst trying to find a line past Walker. Bentley and Grieves put Glasgow back on track in heat 3 in a race won from the gate. Heats four and five were to be shared, again from the gate with good team riding from the Somerset pairing in heat 5 keeping Benltey at the back. David McAllan past Simon Walker in heat 6 to give Glasgow the advantage and open up a four point gap.

Accidents aren't a frequent occurence at Ashfield but the heat 7 coming together of Parker and Fry was a nasty looking one which was to see Fry withdrawn from the meeting and Parker moving very tenderly. Fry caught Parkers wheel coming out of the second bend flipping Parker and sending both riders into the fence at speed. Fry was excluded from the re-run which Parker was to somehow win from the gate despite looking to have problems even getting on his bike.

McAllan showed his team spirit in heat 8 to protect Cockle in heat 8 allowing Glasgow a share of the spoils and this was followed by yet another 5-1 from the Bentley Grieves partnership in heat 9, opening up a 10 point gap for the Tigers.

Heat 10 was again a 4-2 for the new pairing of Stancl and McAllan and it was no surprise when Somerset brought in Jorgensen as a Tactical Ride in heat 11. The Somerset man was first out of the gate and Parker was left playing catch up. He reeled him in for three laps before a superb outside pass at the end of the third lap to deny the veteren a race win.

Heat 12 was to be another saga with Somerset using Smith as their second Tactical Ride. First running Smith appeared to make light contact with Cockle who clattered heavily into the fence. The referee called all four back and after treatment Cockle lined up for the re-run. On the first bend again Smith clearly collected Cockle in almost exactly the same place. With everyone thinking that Somerset had blown a TR, the referee once again called all 4 back much to the displeasure of the crowd who made their feelings known. Cockle was unable to take his place in the re-run and was replaced by Barry Campbell who was to have his best ride of the night when racing eventually got underway. He managed to hold Smith off for 3 laps before Smith got the better of him when Barry went too wide in the second bend of the final lap.

Somerset were not willing to give up and threw in Collins as a Golden Double Tactical substitute in heat 14 in place of the injured Fry. Cockle did well to hold him up for two laps but rather surprisingly Steve Bishop neglected to look back for his partner until it was too late and was unable to slow down enough to let Collins through.

Heat 15 was now a formality and Grieves and Stancl finished in style with a 5-1. Whilst Grieves was given the bumps at the pits gate, George declined no doubt mindful of being dropped the last time and laughingly jumped up and down three times instead!

Being without Eric Carrillo was always going to weaken Glasgow but they pulled together as a team for a relativeley comfortable victory in the end. Hopefully the injured riders will recover quickly from their injuries.

Credit to Somerset, they came and tried and many other teams would have given the bonus point up as a lost cause long before the end of heat 14.

The scorecard and heat details can be found here.

Pictures from this meeting, courtesy of Lioness, can be found here

Tiger Points:

George Stancl	*****	A solid leaders performance
David McAllan	***	Good team orientated effort
Paul Bentley	**	Still struggles a little at Ashfield
James Grieves	****	Home form is still not a problem
Shane Parker	*****	Amazing he managed to carry on after Ht 7
Barry Campbell	**	Still an enigma
James Cockle	**	Not bad debut but has to curb over exuberance