Easy Win for Tigers
(Posted 23/04/07)

In a rather uninspiring meeting at Ashfield with Berwick offering very little resistance, Glasgow ran out convincing winners by 61-29.

Both teams had to use guests as reserves, James Cockle returning as a guest for the injured David McAllan whilst Berwick, after two ‘false starts’ in their attempts to fill their number 7 berth called upon the services of regular Ashfield second half rider Ricky Lee Beecroft.

The first action of the afternoon saw Lee Smethills break the tapes and be replaced by Lee Dicken. Stancl made the gate in the re-run leaving Coles, Dicken and Makovsky fighting out the minor placing's. Dicken shadowed Coles for a couple of laps before cutting inside him at the end of the third lap to give the Tigers the ideal start.

After a short break Lee came out and won heat 2 comfortably from the gate although all four riders appeared to have a touch of the wobbles on the third and fourth bends in the opening laps. Nerves got the better of Beecroft who had to go off 15m after breaking the tapes but he was certainly not off the pace and made up ground on third place Cockle over the four laps.

More from the gate action in heat 3, won by the proverbial mile by Shane Parker. Rempala locked up coming out of the third bend lap two, Ksiezak almost running into the back of him but apart from that the heat was devoid of any action worth talking about.

Heat 4 provided some action but not particularly the type we were hoping for. Burza gated but was a touch all over the place, a slight wobble at the end of the second lap enough to see Trent make an error and lock. His partner James Cockle made contact and came off, then retiring from the race. Beecroft at the back rode steadily and despite engine problems coasted round at the back to claim third place.

Michal Makovsky had engine failure on the start line in heat 5 leaving Shane Parker to shepherd Robert Ksiezak round for a relatively easy 5-1 although Robert did get out of sorts a tad at the end of the first lap but recovered well. After a close opening two bends between George Stancl and Stan Burza in heat 6, Stancl went on to win another well spread out heat and although the TR for Berwick was widely anticipated in heat 7, most were surprised that it was Rempala who came out in the black and white rather than Bergstrom. It was a decision that Berwick were to regret as Rempala finished at the back thanks in the main to some determined riding from Lee Dicken. Although Rempala did get the better of Dicken coming out of the second bend of lap two, Lee quickly regained the third place at the start of the back straight. Meantime, Trent Leverington had made an excellent gate and won the heat comfortably.

It was all over coming out of the second bend in heat 8, Lee Smethills winning the heat as Tigers took another heat advantage before Shane Parker and Robert Ksiezak recorded an easy 5-1 from the gate in heat 9. It was made all the easier by Burza, off 15m after breaking the tapes, overcooking it on the opening bend and retiring from the race.

Stancl and Smethills gated in heat 10 but were quickly split by Rempala. However, Lee was determined and drove up the inside of Berwick's captain at the end of the opening lap to give Tigers yet another 5-1.

Trent Leverington made another superb gate in the initial running of heat 11 with his partner Lee Dicken coming round the outside of the opening bends to sit in comfortably behind him. However, Makovsky completely lost control on the third bend and ended up collecting Lee and with Berwick's Michal Coles reacting very quickly to lay his bike down. Lee unluckily bore the brunt of the accident crashing heavily into the boards coming out of the third bend back first. Remarkably after some attention both he and Makovsky were able to walk back to the pits. Lee even came back out in the re-run although he had to settle for third behind Coles and Leverington who again had made a very good gate.

Shane Parker won heat 12 at a canter, Compton rounding Cockle on the opening bends for third after sleeping at the gate before Stancl and Leverington recorded another 5-1 from the gate in heat 13, again more or less unchallenged.

Cockle came in for Dicken, who was beginning to feel the effects of his earlier crash, in heat 14 whilst Compton, in for Beecroft, ended up off 15m after breaking the tapes. The heat itself was another anticlimax from the gate with points being shared.

With Stancl and Parker both on potential maximums, Rempala did his best to spoil the party by gating in heat 15. However Stancl passed him coming out of the second bend whilst Shane tracked him for the first two laps before driving past him on the inside coming out of the final bend of lap two. The Tigers pairing pulled away to make it another easy 5-1.

This meeting was a big disappointment from the point of view of entertainment with Berwick surprisingly offering little resistance. They seem to have two extremes when they visit Ashfield – they either win, as they did last season, or collapse as they did this. Unfortunately it wont have helped to encourage newcomers to return.

For the Tigers, again the Glasgow team all played their part although it was very noticeable that Trent’s gating has taken a massive step forward in the last week or so and that Robert is still a little tentative. Had David McAllan been fit, the Bandits could have had an even more embarrassing afternoon.

.