Easy Does It
v Newcastle, Posted 30/08/04

The teams were perhaps very different from those that met earlier in the season in the Premier Trophy but the result was very similar with a comfortable win for the home team.

Right from the start Glasgow were in control opening with three five ones, the only pass being from Grieves in the third heat to go from last to second at the end of lap 2.

Former Tiger Jason Lyons was always going to be Newcastle's biggest threat and this proved to be the case as he came out and won heat four despite every attempt by Shane Parker to catch him.

With another easy home 5-1 from the gate in heat five, Newcastle brought Lyons in as a TR as expected in heat 6. George Stancl was quick out of the gate and a good race between him and Lyons saw the current Glasgow man come out on top.

Heat 7 saw Cockle quick out of the gate and the crowd were there treated to a superb display of tactical team riding by Shane Parker who for four laps blocked, countered and out thought everything Little and Juul could throw at him to shepherd the Glasgow youngster home for his first full win in Premier League racing.

Another 5-1 from the gate in heat 8 was making it a very tame afternoons racing. Unsurprisingly the impressive Lyons won heat 9 from the gate to share the points. Stancl continued his good form in heat 10 although a poor ride from McAllan meant again the spoils were shared.

The first running of heat 11 saw Cockle misjudge distance on the backstraight of the first lap and clip Dickens front wheel, knocking him off. The petulant Dicken jumped up ready for action but looked mighty silly as there was no-one near for him to take it out on! Cockle was rightly excluded from the re-run in which a Parker win ensured the points were once again shared.

The quietly effective Bentley won heat 12 easily but a poor ride from Carrillo, who appeared to have a problem at the end of the first lap, meant yet another 3-3.

Surprisingly Lyons looked poor in heat 13. Parker was well out in front with Olsen leading Stancl when Olsen had an engine failure on lap 3 allowing Stancl through to second. On noticing this, Parker slowed right down to allow George to take the win on the line and thus maintain his full maximum.

With one eye on the bonus perhaps Newcastle used their second TR in heat 14 with Little wearing the black and white helmet. He gated in the lead but was passed by James Grieves on the first lap.

Deciding who went out in heat 15 must have been difficult for Glasgow but Stewart elected for the impressive Stancl and quietly effective Bentley with Shane unusually sitting this one out. Sadly this was to rob George of his maximum as his old adversary 'engine failure' took hold on the start line leaving Bentley to battle on his own. Lyons won to give Newcastle the 4-2 in the final heat.

Overall a comfortable win for Glasgow and a pleasure to see Jason Lyons again but sadly racing was pretty poor verging on the non existent. Glasgow must win at Newcastle in the return meeting less than 24 hours later to keep their Young Shield hopes very much alive and if Newcastle are anything like the team they looked at Ashfield, the tigers must feel confident.

Barring Jason Lyons, the best that can be said about the Newcastle team is they were very poor.

The scorecard and heat details can be found here.

Tiger Points:

George Stancl	****	Denied a deserved maximum by ef
David McAllan	***	A decent afternoon but with one poor race
Paul Bentley	*****	Quietly excellent
James Grieves	***	Another good performance
Shane Parker	****	Excellent team orientated display
James Cockle	****	Tired at the end but good effort again
Eric Carrillo	**	Seems jaded at the moment