Tigers Win Ashfield Opener
Posted 02/04/06

Glasgow finally got their home campaign for 2006 off to a winning start, defeating the Sheffield Tigers by 51 points to 44 in an entertaining encounter at Ashfield this afternoon.

It did not start however in the way that the home fans had hoped with the visitors securing a 5-1 from the gate in the opening heat of 2006. Glasgow hit back straight away however with the reserve pairing of Ksiezak and Cockle pulling away from Benji Compton on the second bend of heat 2, going on to even the overall score with a comfortable win. Paul Cooper looked off the pace in this race but had suffered an engine failure in the warm up lap and was perhaps not fully prepared at this stage.

Racing in the true sense was to start in heat 3. Nieminen completely missed the gate after trying to anticipate tapes up and was last away. However he came up the inside, rearing slightly as he picked up drive to come out of bend 2 in the lead. Sanchez tried very hard over the remainder of the race to find a way past Kauko but the stylish Fin anticipated every attack and claimed the victory. The poor gate followed by an inside dive on the second bend was also to work for team mate Shane Parker in heat four as Shane came out on top of some hard racing with Andre Compton on the opening bends to pull clear and win easily. the action was between James Cockle and an impressive looking Benji Compton at the back, James finally coming out on top.

Ashworth and Wilson outgated their Glasgow counterparts in heat 5 but Nieminen stayed with it and pulled off an excellent outside pass of Ben Wilson on the back straight of the second lap. Ashworth however remained untroubled at the front whilst Dicken pulled up at the back on the third lap.

It was to take three attempts to run heat 6, the first - an unsatisfactory start - followed by a tapes exclusion for Danny Bird which may have been machine related as his engine went on the line. He was replaced by Robert Ksiezak, who team rode with David McAllan to ensure a share of the spoils behind the fast gating Compton.

Last season, heat 7 was often a display of superb team riding by Shane Parker to shepherd James Cockle home for a 5-1. The only difference this season is that it was Robert Ksiezak who Shane protected with yet another display showing that there is far more to being a quality rider than just blasting round the track.

David McAllan and James Cockle followed this up with another 5-1 in heat 8, David winning by a significant margin whilst James showed just how much he is developing by managing to hold off everything Ben Wilson could throw at him for all four laps to claim second. Again Kauko was last out of the gate in heat 9 but first out of the second bend. Kauko and Andre Compton battled for the entire race with Kauko again coming out on top. Meanwhile after a poor gate Lee Dicken passed Paul Cooper on the backstraight of lap 2 to give the Tigers a heat advantage.

Heat 10 was an eventful one. There was surprise on the terraces that Sheffield, now 10 points behind, did not name the impressive Sanchez as a tactical ride. In the first running, Legault gated but Danny swept round the outside of him on the third bend. David was also hot on his tail and had to take slight evasive action when Legault locked up coming out of the fourth bend. With Legault still slightly ahead but having lost the momentum, David came up the inside of him along the home straight and went ahead going into the first bend of the second lap. David then rode out towards the fence, Legault went for the same piece of track and the inevitable happened. There was some debate on the terraces as to whether it was David out in front who was entitled to go for the piece of track or whether by doing so he had not left his opponent enough room to race. Legault certainly thought the latter as he had to be restrained in the heat of the moment first by a medic and then by a member of track staff from going to the stricken Glasgow rider. The referee thought differently however and excluded the Canadian. David meantime received extensive treatment on track before walking with assistance back to the pits. He was unsurprisingly unable to take his place in the re-run and replaced by James Cockle.

In the re-run, Bird and Cockle gated ahead of Sanchez but the on form Argentinean passed James round the outside at the end of the back straight on the first lap and followed this by going round the outside of Danny Bird on the second bend of the second lap, going on to record a comfortable win.

Ksiezak and Parker outgated the Sheffield pairing in heat 11 but Ashworth cleverly moved Ksiezak out on the second bend with some hard but fair riding to allow his team mate Wilson through into second place and relegating Robert to fourth.

Sheffield were to name Sanchez as a TR in heat 12 and although James Cockle gated he was only able to hold him off until the final bend of the first lap when Sanchez went round the outside. Cooper also gave chase to pressurise Cockle on the last lap but Cockle just held out to claim second spot. However, Sheffield were unable to build on this however with Parker and Bird claiming a surprisingly easy 5-1 from the gate in heat 13 as a few drops of rain started to fall.

Legault was named as a TR in heat 14 and was to be unfortunate to be involved in another crash although this one was more clear cut. Legault had gated but Nieminen went round the outside of him coming out of the second bend. Robert Ksiezak was giving chase and looked to have the beating of the Canadian. However, perhaps due to inexperience he tried to go through at the end of the second lap coming off the fourth bend, going for a gap that wasn't there and leaving Legault facing another encounter with the Ashfield fence. Thankfully Legault was unhurt. Ksiezak was excluded from the re-run which saw an almost carbon copy of the first running, Nieminen going round the outside of Legault on the second bend and going on to win the race.

Sheffield were off the favoured inside gates in heat 15 and Sanchez took full advantage of this to hit the front with Shane Parker following. Shane stalked Sanchez for three laps, almost playing with him, before passing on the outside on the back straight of the final lap to take the chequered flag. Compton beat Nieminen comfortably for third place, getting revenge for his defeat in heat 9.

Glasgow perhaps made it a little hard for themselves but there were plenty of positives from today's meeting. Everyone expects Glasgow to rely heavily on their top two but Glasgow still won today despite Danny having an off day by his standards. Our reserves scored a very impressive 16 points between them and both looked very good on track. Kauko was talking to Shane at length before the meeting and during the first heat about the track and racing lines. He seems to have got to grips with it very quickly and certainly seemed to like the second bend, passing both inside and out with apparent ease. Shane started as he finished last season and fully deserved his paid maximum and whilst David started slowly he had found his form before his accident particularly in the impressive heat 8 win. Lee had possibly his worst meeting so far for Glasgow this season, unfortunate it had to happen at home and it is still early days.

Sheffield provided strong opposition on the day with Sanchez hitting form and both Ashworth and Legault showing considerable improvement since last season. They may well be dark horses this season and it is very unlikely - although not impossible - that Glasgow's 7 point lead will give them a chance of the bonus point in the return leg.

Tiger Performance Points:-
(based on expectations)

R003