18 Point Defeat at Owlerton
(Posted 25/05/07)

A very heavily over watered track greeted the Tigers as they turned out against Sheffield Tigers at Owlerton and with Glasgow not particularly gating well and the track not being particularly conducive to passing there was only one way this meeting was going to go.

It opened with a bit of controversy though when Stancl and Dicken did make the gate in the opening heat and were on a 5-1 on the third lap when Ricky Ashworth tried a reckless inside pass of Lee Dicken, resulting in Lee testing the safety fence. everyone expected the race to be awarded but the referee for whatever reason elected to re-run the race. In the re-run, Birkinshaw and Stancl were in close contention early stages with Birkinshaw pulling ahead on the third bend and it was race over.

Lee Smethills rode well in heat 2, coming out of the second bend ahead and going on to win comfortably although David was left at the rear.

The track caught the home sides captain Andre Compton out in heat 3, leaving him at the rear but with Ben Wilson outgating Parker and Ksiezak points were once again shared.

After a little track grading, David McAllan made the gate in heat 4 but was victim to a rare early meeting pass when Parsons went round the outside of him on the third bend of the opening lap. Leverington had outgated Cooper and despite the home rider looking considerably quicker, the lack of passing lines meant Trent was able to hold on for a hard worked third place.

The following two heats were very much from the gate, Glasgow suffering a 5-1 in heat 5 and getting a share of the spoils in heat 6. Another frustrating heat followed when the faster Parker was again unable to find a line to get past the slower Parsons up front despite being on his tail for the entire four laps. With partner Ksiezak at the back it meant Sheffield were able to extend their lead.

David McAllan managed to rescue the Tigers from what looked as if it could be another 5-1 in heat 8 when he managed a very good pass, inside of Paul Cooper, on the third bend but another 5-1 from the gate in heat 9 saw Glasgow go into the interval a hefty 12 points down.

Quite a bit of grading was done on the track during the interval and by now it was also recovering from the pre-meeting over watering. Most expected Parker to come out as a TR in heat 10 but once again the Glasgow management resisted the temptation. As it happened, Ashworth outgated the Glasgow pair for a shared heat from the gate.

George Stancl came out as TR on the next heat and made the gate, followed by Joel Parsons. Parsons tracked the Glasgow man for the opening lap before lining up and executing a very good pass on the second bend of lap two. STancl had to settle for second and with partner Lee Dicken at the back, the TR only resulted in a shared heat.

Compton won heat 12 from the gate despite Parkers early attentions with Sheffield earning a relatively easy 5-1 in heat 13, the race correctly being awarded after Trent slid off at the rear with both Glasgow riders well off the pace.

Glasgow chose to bring Shane Parker out as a TS in heat 14 again despite the lack of passing opportunities on the track but with most people crossing Ksiezak out in their programme it was decided instead to drop McAllan from the heat. It seemed to be a justified move when Ksiezak made the gate and opened up a considerable lead but the race was stopped after Wilson and Cockle, trying to team ride, basically got in each others road and both were sent clattering to the ground, Cockle bearing the brunt of it. Wilson was excluded and Cockle replaced by the stronger reserve, Paul Cooper, in the re-run. This time Cooper made the gate and there was no way back for Glasgow.

Another strange decision came from the Glasgow management in heat 15, putting Robert Ksiezak out alongside Shane Parker. Compton gated ahead of the Glasgow pairing but Joel Parsons powered past Robert on the backstraight and actually looked briefly to threaten to pass Shane before the race settled down.

The scores from the two meetings in two days may have looked similar but the meetings themselves could not really have been much different. Whereas the meeting at King's Lynn was entertaining, the difference between their track and Sheffield's was chalk and cheese, hence the entertainment value was also far poorer.

Shane rode well again, as did David and Lee Smethills - our only heat winner - although that perhaps does not reflect in their scores. Trent was steady enough and Lee Dicken looked to be affected by his opening heat encounter with the fence courtesy of Mr Ashworth. george on the other hand was a bit disappointing but did manage to add 8 points to the score.

It is very unlikely that Glasgow can now claim the bonus point at the return on Sunday, given how well Sheffield's middle order in particular can ride Ashfield, but not completely impossible.