Another Home Defeat for Tigers
(Posted 21/04/08)

A bad spell for the Tigers continued as they slumped to their 3rd defeat in 8 days, loosing the opening leg of the Knock Out cup tie to Birmingham by a hefty 12 points.

It had looked so promising form the start, Tigers getting their first opening heat 5-1 of the season courtesy of Shane Parker and Ross Brady from the gate.  Apart from an early challenge from Lee Smart, who was given a public warning after the race for moving at the start, the Tigers pair were untroubled.

When Josh and Lee gated in heat 2 it was looking very positive for the home side.  However, on the opening bends, Jack Roberts lost control and hurtled towards Lee Dicken on the outside line.  There was contact but both riders managed to stay on.  Unfortunately, though, it sent Lee to the back.  He never gave up, coming close to passing on the inside of Hargreaves at the end of the third lap, but the door was shut and he finished at the rear.

The heat 3 problems for the Tigers continued, Birmingham recording an easy 1-5 from the tapes courtesy of Lyons and King.

Jack Roberts and Lee Dicken had a coming together before even reaching the opening bend of heat 4, the referee correctly calling all four back. When Lee locked up on the opening bends of the re-run, Birmingham looked to be on for another heat maximum.  Once again Lee’s grit showed as he finally rounded team mate Ksiezak on the third lap and gave chase.  The Brummies may have looked too far ahead but Lee went for the grip on the outside of the final bend and in a powerful drive to the line claimed second place from Roberts by half a wheel.

Once again things looked brighter for the Tigers at the start of heat 5 with Trent and Mitchell gating ahead of the opposition and holding position, Mitchell holding off a determined challenge from Smart on the opening lap. By the third lap Tigers looked good for a 5-1 but Mitchell clipped the inside kerb on the third bend.  This seemed to throw him out of sorts, he went very wide into bend four, right to the boards.  His footrest caught in the fence, the fence stopped dead and Mitchell obviously didn’t.  He quickly got up and onto the centre green where he collapsed and was treated by the medics for what is thought to be heavily bruised thighs.  The race was awarded as a 3-3 and Mitchell withdrawn from the meeting.

Ross Brady made an excellent gate in heat 6 although Shane Parker completely missed it.  He was quickly past Hargreaves on the opening bends and swept round the outside of Roynon into second place on the fourth bend of the opening lap.  Roynon was not for giving up however and was causing the Tigers pairing all sorts of problems as they tried to hold him at bay. An error by Brady at the end of lap 2 saw Parker hit the front although Ross still held off Roynon but only for another two bends, Roynon passing up the inside coming out of the pits bend.  He could not get close to Shane however and Tigers recorded a heat advantage.

Josh Grajczonek never recovered from a poor gate in heat 7.  Robert Ksiezak split the Birmingham pairing for just over a lap but provided no resistance when Lyons passed inside him on the back straight of the second lap, the heat finishing well spread out.

Once again lady luck seemed to desert the Tigers in heat 8.  Another electric gate from Ross Brady saw him hit the front and by the end of the first lap he was a decent distance ahead. Lee Smart got the better of a tight opening bend battle with Lee Dicken but Dicken soon passed him to claim second place.  Just when it looked as if the Tigers would get a fairly comfortable 5-1 after opening up a decent gap, Ross Brady seemed to catch in the dirt on the second bend of lap 3, causing him to slide off.  Lee was very close behind and despite a pretty impressive effort at laying his bike down quickly was unable to completely avoid his stricken team mate.  Both riders took hefty knocks but were able to walk back to the pits although Brady was to take no further part in the meeting.  The heat was awarded as a 3-3 with Ross excluded.

Trent and Josh made the gate in heat 9 just ahead of Adam Roynon.  Roynon lined up an outside pass on Grajczonek at the end of the opening lap although he could make no inroads on the gap that Trent had opened up and the heat finished well spread.

Lee Dicken replaced Ross Brady in heat 10 but was clearly still suffering himself from the effects of his heat 8 crash. Jason Lyons gated quickest, Shane tracked him all the way trying to find a way through but to no avail.

Birmingham’s confidence was now high and Roynon and Smart inflicted another relatively easy 1-5 in heat 11.  The response from the Tigers camp was to bring in Shane Parker as a tactical substitute up against Lyons and Hargreaves.  Trent Leverington made a sterling attempt to hold Jason Lyons on the opening bends but by bend 3 Lyons had got the better of him and pulled clear.  The action was now all at the back and as soon as Parker got by Jack Hargreaves on the second bend of lap 2, Trent instantly slowed to allow his captain through to go on and get the double points for second place.  Lyons, however was completely out of reach by that stage.

Lyons and Parker came up against each other again in heat 13, Lyons once more coming out on top after getting the drop from the gate.  At the back, Ksiezak held off Roynon for third place although only just.

Heat 14 ensured there would be no last heat decider at Ashfield this week.  The riders barely seemed to have lined up at the tapes when the referee let them go.  It seemed to catch the Tigers pairing of Grajczonek and Dicken out but Birmingham’s pairing of King and Roberts were quick to react and comfortably claimed the 1-5 that ensured Birmingham would be victorious on the day.

Unsurprisingly heat 15 saw Parker and Leverington line up against Lyons and Roynon.  Once more Lyons led from the gate with another flawless ride.  Roynon had gated alongside his team mate but Shane swept round the outside of him at the end of the opening lap.  He gave chase to Lyons but to no avail.  It was however quite a closely contested heat with Trent never giving up at the back and pushing Roynon all the way.

There is no way of dressing it up, this was a bad defeat.  You could at a push try and argue there was some bad luck in there but the bottom line is that the Tigers were deservedly beaten and quite easily so and that must give the promotion cause for concern.

It was always going to be a hard season and the fans appear to have accepted that but there was a very strong feeling on the terraces that in particular one of the riders expected to rise to the challenge this season was falling well short for the Tigers.

Tigers now head to Birmingham with only pride to ride for on Wednesday and face a very good Edinburgh side next week.

Glasgow Tigers speedway - posted on glasgow speedway dot com, an unofficial glasgow tigers speedway website.