Tigers Romp Home to Victory
(Posted 30/06/08)

Finally, a determined Glasgow side got their first away win in the Premier League this season, and only the third Premier League win overall, against a weakened Mildenhall side at West Row.

The home side were undoubtedly very weak, as they have been in many of their meetings this season, but you still have to go out there and do the business and Glasgow's riders did that with a superb and overwhelming second half of the meeting.

In the early stages however, the story was one mostly of engine failures and similar problems, although not in the opening heat itself when Carl Stonehewer came from the back with a particularly well timed drive past Michal Rajkowski to claim the win. Lee Dicken held third place for a time but an error let Chris Schramm through meaning the spoils were shared.

Mitchell Davey made an excellent gate in heat 2 and went on to win comfortably with a stylish ride that can only serve to give him confidence. Uncharacteristically, Josh was sluggish out of the gate but quickly found himself in third place after Mark Wright suffered an engine failure. The Glasgow Tigers certainly got the better of the luck when on the final lap second placed Mark Baseby's bike packed up, Josh came through into second and Baseby was left to push almost complete lap for the point.

Mildenhall's bad luck continued when guest Andrew Bargh threw a chain on the opening corner of heat 3. The home side's Rajkowski had gated however and he led from start to finish. The gremlins still had a part to play however when Anders Andersen suffered engine failure and had to push for home to collect the point.

There was an excellent display of trapping in heat 4 with Robert Ksiezak and Josh Grajczonek both making good starts and after the opening bends they were never really troubled as they went on to secure the Tigers first 5-1 of the afternoon.

Heat 5 was from the gate, with Schramm claiming the win for the Fen Tigers although Stonehewer never gave up and chased him hard all the way. Lee Dicken claimed third place comfortably ahead of Andrew Bargh.

Glasgow were certainly brought down to earth with a bump in heat 6. Both Robert Ksiezak and Mitchell Davey were caught sleeping at the gate, something that the so far impressive pairing of Rajkowski and Schramm took full advantage of, recording an easy 5-1.

It was to take three attempts to run heat 7 and there was perhaps more than a little controversy involved. In the initial running, Trent came down on the opening bend but surprisingly the red lights did not come on straight away for the all four back decision Trent was obviously hoping for. he stayed down and as a result the referee had to put the red lights on and obviously Trent was going to be the rider excluded. However the controversy came with the referee's interpretation of when the red lights came on. Anders Andersen had looked a little erratic as he tried to come inside Mark Baseby and in fairness Anders clearly took the Mildenhall reserve out. However, much to the disapproval of the home fans, the referee ruled that the coming together had happened after the red lights came on and therefore Anders was invited to take his place in the re-run.

After a long stoppage for treatment to Baseby and a second unsatisfactory start, the race eventually got underway and it was good news for Glasgow as Anders hit the front and looked certain to stay there. However Graversen was most definitely on form and found a terrific passing line to get round the young Dane and claim the win. The luckless Baseby suffered an engine failure on the opening lap so there were only two finishers.

Heat 8 was almost an anti climax, Michal Rajkowski winning from the gate although Josh Grajczonek made him work all the way for it. It was more action from the gate in heat 9 but this time it was Glasgow's Robert Ksiezak who showed the others a clean pair of heels although Mitchell Davey unfortunately finished at the back.

There was a long interval between heats 9 and 10, much of it appeared to be for no apparent reason with the riders for heat 10 waiting for some time with their helmets on to come out. Whatever was said by team manager Stewart Dickson in that interval certainly had a pronounced effect on Glasgow as they came out and steamrollered the opposition away with 1-5's in five of the last six heats.

With Schramm and Rajkowski both having looked very impressive in the first part of the meeting, heat 10 was possibly the most impressive of these. However, Trent and Anders popped sweetly out of the gate to claim the victory, Anders riding very well to hold off Chris Schramm who challenged for most of the race.

Lee Dicken was the rider who hit the front out of the gate in heat 11, Carl Stonehewer settled in behind him and again Tigers had another comfortable 5-1 on the scorecard.

Obviously going for the kill, Stewart Dickson brought Josh Grajczonek in as a reserve switch for Mitchell Davey. Heat 2 aside, Josh had looked very composed and he and Anders both looked well in control as they team rode to another 5-1 in heat 12.

Mildenhall were reeling from the Tigers onslaught at this point and some fans were even seen heading to the exit. their team manager went for one last throw of the dice bringing Chris Schramm out in the black and white helmet against Glasgow's top two men on the night, Carl Stonehewer and Robert Ksiezak. It was to be ineffective for the home side as Carl and Robert made it four 5-1's in a row, never seriously looking troubled after the opening bend.

With the meeting already decided, Mildenhall brought Jan Graversen in as a TS for Mark Baseby in heat 14. With Graversen managing to get passed Mitchell Davey, in as a reserve switch for Grajczonek, it did stop the succession of 5-1's for Glasgow but Trent still won the heat, again quite comfortably.

Glasgow elected to go for Robert Ksiezak and Anders Andersen in the formality of heat 15 whilst Rajkowski and Schramm lined up for Mildenhall. Although they had been Mildenhall's best riders earlier on in the meeting they were unable to provide an answer to Robert and Anders who wrapped the meeting up with yet another 5-1 for Glasgow.

Yes Mildenhall were very weak but the pressure was still on Glasgow to perform and they certainly stepped up to the plate when it mattered. We are still not a top rate team but we pulled together as a team and the confidence of the riders should all have gotten a boost from the performance and Glasgow were certainly by far the better team on the day. In particular, Robert, Anders and Josh appear to have impressed those seeing Glasgow for the first time this season

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