The final was a close fought affair, Danny Bird was unsure of the result until he came round to the pits bend after the race had finished but the look of delight on his face as he realised that partner Shane Parker had got the all important third place to give Glasgow the title was clear to see. No one could claim Glasgow had dominated and all the way through the heats almost all pairings were in with a shout, but the Tigers pairing did what mattered and avoided last place in all bar one of their rides to lift the title.

The opening heat saw the Sheffield pairing of Ricky Ashworth and Ben Wilson collecting a maximum from the gate with Will Lawson in third, his partner Derek Sneddon being well off the pace at the back. The home favourites were out in heat two against a Workington pairing many felt could be a threat. After a level gate, Danny Bird wobbled badly coming into the second bend putting him to the back. Wright led coming out of the second bend but Shane Parker slipped past him on the outside coming down the back straight and although Wright pressed him all the way, Shane held on to win. With Danny Bird passing inside Piszcz on the third bend of the opening lap it meant the Tigers opened with a heat advantage.

With Rye House withdrawing in the morning, the home fans had another Glasgow pairing to cheer on against Newcastle in heat 3 with Robert Ksiezak and David McAllan as ‘Glasgow B’ stepping in at the last minute. They were unable to stop Franc and Stancl collecting a 7-2 from the gate although David McAllan did pressure George Stancl for all 4 laps.

The fast gating Magnus Zetterstrom tried to anticipate the start in heat 3 as Somerset lined up against Mildenhall and paid the price by as he had to pull back just as the tapes went up. His partner Emil Kramer looked very impressive as he won from the gate however. The King’s Lynn pairing of Nermark and Doolan won a well spread out heat 5 from the gate against Edinburgh.

Danny and Shane came to tapes again in heat 6, lining up against Paul Thorp and Mark Lemon of Stoke. The first running was deemed unsatisfactory due to Paul Thorp jumping the start. It was a lucky break for the Tigers as both Danny and Shane had missed the gate and were behind both Potters riders. Danny made amends by hitting the front from the gate in the re-run. Parker and Thorp rode a very tight opening couple of bends with Thorp appearing to clip Shane's back wheel as he came round the outside of him on the second bend, causing Parker to drift to the back. With Bird and Thorp well clear, Shane chased Mark Lemon, reeling him in and taking the outside line on the second bend of the final lap, riding round the boards and eventually pulling past him coming off the final bend to ensure that Tigers had again avoided the dreaded last place.

Ricky Ashworth slid off on his own in the opening bend of heat 7 and was excluded . Unfortunately for Sheffield, Ben Wilson had been leading at the time but missed the gate in the re-run, Stancl and Franc taking full advantage to collect 7 points from the gate. Workington repeated this feat from the gate in heat 8 over Mildenhall with the only passing in heat 9 being at the back between team mates Robert Ksiezak and David McAllan as the King’s Lynn pairing collected the maximum heat advantage. Another procession followed in heat 10 with the Somerset pairing starting and finishing ahead of their Stoke counterparts.

The Newcastle pairing gated in heat 11 against Edinburgh but Newcastle asset Will Lawson managed to get round the outside of Josef Franc into second on the opening lap and the two riders had a good battle for second place, Lawson holding on.

Shane and Danny were out in action in heat 12 and once again had to endure an all 4 back re-run after Jason Lyons was adjudged to have jumped the start. Although Danny gated in the re-run, Lyons was quickly past him on the opening bends and went on to claim victory. A rather subdued Shane Parker got third place ahead of Jon Armstrong. Glasgow B then came out in the next heat against Sheffield. Ben Wilson gated and was gone. Robert Ksiezak had been in second place with partner David McAllan in third but Robert locked up slightly on the third bend, accidentally impeding his partner as he did so. Ashworth took full advantage and was quickly through into second place.

Somerset got what was perhaps a surprise maximum heat advantage against Workington in heat 14, due to some fierce riding from Zetterstrom. On the opening bends he was very hard on Piszcz taking him right to the boards, something from which the Workington rider didn’t recover from, eventually retiring on the second lap.

With both sides in the running for the semi’s, the heat 15 clash between Newcastle and King’s Lynn was always going to be important and Newcastle were to come out on top thanks in part to some very sporting behaviour from King’s Lynn’s Kevin Doolan who quickly cleared the track after colliding with the third bend fence to allow the race to continue. Stoke’s Paul Thorp won heat 16 by a mile from Jason Lyons after a rolling start that surprisingly the referee missed.
Heat 17 between Glasgow B and Edinburgh was merely for pride, neither team in a position to progress further. The first running saw Robert Ksiezak gate but Will Lawson past him on the inside coming out of bend two. Derek Sneddon lost control, glanced the fence at the pits bend and came off. He was quickly up on his feet and remounted just in time to see Robert Ksiezak come a cropper on the third bend. Robert couldn’t get up, the race was stopped and Robert obviously excluded from the re-run. David McAllan gated in the re-run but Sneddon went round the outside of him on the opening bends and into the lead. With all three riders close, David never gave up and on the third lap just when it looked as if he was in danger of being passed by Lawson, David squeezed round the outside of Sneddon into the lead and held on to the flag. Ironically the meaningless heat had produced possibly the best race of the afternoon so far.

Danny and Shane followed in heat 18 knowing that they only had to get a finisher to qualify for the final stages but with their Somerset opponents in first and second place, Shane Parker in third gave the Tigers fans an anxious moment as he fell on the third bend and hit the fence trying to pass Emil Kramer. The worry was that he would aggravate the injury he sustained the night before at Workington but he was able to continue although obviously not in the re run of heat 18 from which he was excluded. The pressure was on Danny to ensure he finished heat 16 and the re-run was a very uneventful from the gate affair with Danny finishing a safe second and everyone breathing a sigh of relief as he entered the final lap.

Sheffield and King’s Lynn came up against each other in a crucial heat 19 with the Stars needing a heat advantage to progress. The race provided possibly the most controversial moment of the meeting with Kevin Doolan coming down on the opening bends after Ashworth ran into him. Remarkably the referee missed the coming together and allowed the race to continue and effectively ruling King’s Lynn out of the running. The phone call to the referee from the pits at the end of the race was, as always futile but it seemed unjust that King’s Lynn went out in this manner and even more so that Kevin Doolan, the rider who had already shown great sportsmanship earlier in the meeting, was the victim.

The first semi final between Glasgow and Newcastle saw Stancl gating and being allowed to pull clear with Parker and Bird team riding to ensure that Franc stayed at the back and the Tigers had clawed themselves into the final. Zetterstrom missed the gate again due to misjudged anticipation allowing Ben Wilson to hit the front ahead of him. The Sheffield youngster showed his mettle when he thwarted an attempted pass by Zetterstrom round the outside when he firmly shut the door on him. Zetterstrom appeared to loose interest and drifted to the back, Ashworth’s third place ensuring that Sheffield made it a Tigers v Tigers final.

Before it was run there was the small matter of the third place play off between Newcastle and Somerset. Somerset actually came to the tapes with the wrong helmet colours but the referee sensibly put the red lights on, advised them of the error and allowed a fresh two minutes to make amends. It was to take another two running's to complete the race however, Zetterstrom becoming the latest victim of the third bend taking a hefty fall and being excluded. That gave Newcastle third place but the impressive Emil Kramer finished his personal performance on a high with a win from the tapes.

And then there was the final. The young Sheffield pairing had shown themselves to be a very real threat with Wilson as usual riding the Ashfield circuit well although Ashworth was perhaps a little lucky to get away with hard riding in the heats. The final saw Danny Bird beat Ricky Ashworth from the gate and all eyes turned to the battle at the back between Shane Parker and Ben Wilson. Ben certainly did not make it easy for Shane and made him work hard for three laps before Shane managed to get a bit of a gap between them on the final lap and the title was once again Glasgow’s.

As Shane said in his victory speech at the end of the presentation, it would be nice if such meetings were held on neutral tracks but given Rye House’s contemptuous treatment of the competition and the fans attending it, many are left wondering if we have now seen the last of this competition.

Those teams competing were all a credit to their respective clubs and although on the day a few of the pairings were depleted due to injury and the track was perhaps not as conducive to passing as it has been in the past, all ten pairs came and gave it a go. King’s Lynn should officially win the league in the next couple of weeks but you cannot help but feel they were slightly hard done by although the young Sheffield pairing were most definitely one of the best pairings on show. Newcastle rode solidly whilst both Edinburgh and Mildenhall should get credit for coming and giving their all despite both sides having injury and availability problems. Emil Kramer was probably the surprise package of the afternoon looking classy on a track he has previously been distinctly average on. Thorp and Lemon worked hard as did Wright and Piszcz. Credit should also be given to David and Robert for stepping in at the last minute and ensuring competitive racing, giving a very good account of themselves.

At the end of the day however all that would normally be remembered is that the 2006 Pairs Champions are Danny Bird and Shane Parker. Well done lads and lets hope that Rye House’s shenanigans don’t mean you are the last winners of the Premier League Pairs.