The Spring Has Sprung
(Posted 23/03/08)

With the Monarchs high on confidence, it was always going to be a tough afternoon for the Tigers and unfortunately they were to suffer the first home defeat of the season in this Spring Trophy second leg.

It was not all doom and gloom for the Glasgow fans and many went away from Ashfield remarkably upbeat as there were quite a few positives to take from the afternoon but the bottom line was that this was a home meeting lost.

After a short delay to let queuing fans in, for the second week running the Tigers succumbed to a 1-5 in the opening heat. Mitchell Davey, in as the r/r for Ross Brady, gated but Monarchs Ryan passed inside on the second bend to take over the lead. Mitchell remained in contention for over a lap but then seemed to lose power. Sneddon took full advantage of this to pass inside him on the third bend of lap 2 to secure second place.

Hopes of hitting back quickly looked to be dashed when Summers hit the front from the gate in heat 2. However, Josh Grajczonek made a powerful drive off the fourth bend of the opening lap and went on to win the heat by a comfortable distance. Lee Dicken meantime was in third but lost concentration whilst challenging Summers for second at the start of the third lap, allowing Tully through into third and relegating Lee to the back.

Jonasson and Davey gated side by side in heat 3 and after a tough opening bend Jonasson just managed to muscle ahead of the Tigers youngster. The two were only inches apart for the opening lap before Jonasson managed to shake Mitchell off and pull clear at the front. Meantime Leverington and Lawson had been doing battle at the back, this time Trent getting the better of the early physical battle to claim third. Lawson challenged the whole race and with Davey ahead slowing down Trent had to work hard to keep Lawson at bay. A final bend drive by Lawson between the two was adjudged by the referee to have failed and the heat was shared although to many in the crowd it did look as if Lawson had just managed to shade third.

Edinburgh reacted by claiming another 1-5 in heat 4. Weathers and Tully gated but Robert Ksiezak passed Tully on the opening bends. Tully edged back in front by the third bend only for Robert to pull it back again on the fourth. The two remained in close contention until the third lap when a nice move by Tully on the opening bends saw him easily pass inside Ksiezak and pull clear.

Heat 5 opened with some gamesmanship of the highest order with Sneddon sliding off on the opening bend and making it a bit too obvious that his reluctance to clear the track had something to do with Trent Leverington getting the better of Ryan Fisher in the early stages. He deservedly received a public warning for his actions but it was a price worth paying for the Monarchs as the re-run saw Fisher win from the gate.

Robert Ksiezak won heat 6 from the gate with Summers well off the pace at the back. The main racing in the heat was for second place between Wethers and Parker. Wethers held the upper hand the whole race although Shane was close. The Glasgow man tried a drive off the outside round the final bend but Wethers cleverly blocked the move.

With light snow falling, Glasgow suddenly found some form and hit back with two 5-1's. The first came courtesy of Robert Ksiezak and Josh Grajczonek. Both were slightly ahead of their Monarchs counterparts in a very tightly contested opening few bends. Jonasson went in hard on Grajczonek on the third bend, making slight contact, but Josh held his own and it was Jonasson who came off worst as slipped to the back It was then left to Lawson to challenge and he tracked Josh for most of the race but some superb blocking and clever lines from Grajczonek, especially on the third lap, saw the youngster hold on for a paid win.

He was straight back out again in heat 8, this time with Trent Leverington. Trent won from the gate. Josh had missed the gate but muscled his way through into 2nd place on the opening bends. Tully pressured Josh for a couple of laps but again the youngster was more than a match for the challenge and forced Tully into an error at the end of the third lap which saw him lock up and allow Grajczonek to pull clear for his second paid win on the trot.

An excellent outside drive on the opening bends saw Trent Leverington hit the front after the Edinburgh pairing had gated. Mitchell came through into third behind Matthew Wethers but went out of sorts on the 4th bend allowing Summers through into third and that was how the race was to finish.

Lawson won heat 10 from the gate with an out of sorts Shane Parker following him round for second. Grajczonek looked to be off the pace in the early stages but swept round the outside of the fourth bend on the opening lap and picked up grip that saw him easily pass outside Jonasson on the outside line before the first lap was complete.

Fisher and Sneddon were to deliver another sucker punch to the Tigers in heat11 with a 1-5 from the gate in heat 11. Lee Dicken came off at the end of the opening lap whilst trying to challenge for third place and was publicly thanked afterwards by the referee for his sportsmanship in quickly getting up and continuing. It was however an easy win for the visitors.

Leverington won heat 12 from the gate. Grajczonek, in for Dicken, tried to blast round the outside of Jonasson coming out of the second bend but Jonasson blocked him, sending Josh to the back as a result and he was unable to regain ground.

Parker gated but Fisher came through the inside of him on the opening bends into the lead, quickly followed by Ksiezak and Wethers as Shane continued to struggle. Fisher again won by a comfortable margin but Robert had to work hard to thwart Matthew Wethers for the majority of the race to hold on to second place.

Lawson appeared to roll at the start of heat 14 but got away with it and as a result was quickly well clear of the field. Grajczonek passed inside Tully coming out of the second bend but the Edinburgh reserve quickly regained position on the back straight and started to open up a gap. It looked as if the visitors were in line for another 1-5 until Tully was unfortunate to have a chain problem at the end of the third lap, gifting Josh second and Mitchell third.

After some debate over Edinburgh's choice of rider for heat 15 when referee Stuart Wilson erroneously blocked them from using Will Lawson, the final heat saw the revised pairing of Fisher and Wethers claim another maximum.

Defeats are never easy to take at home, especially to your local rivals, but the result was a fair one. Shane Parker and Lee Dicken will both want to wipe this meeting from their memory as soon as possible, especially Shane.

There were however a number of positives to take from the day. We all knew this was being billed as a transitional season so to see Mitchell and Josh improve so dramatically over a week from last weeks Berwick meeting is certainly encouraging. Both rode well today but Josh was outstanding. Robert also appears to be regaining his confidence, he perhaps had a couple of poorer races but overall there was definitely shades of the old Robert. Trent once again was more than equal to his heat leader status and rode intelligently.

The promotion certainly pulled off a master stroke in getting Edinburgh to agree to re-schedule this meeting as the second leg of the Spring Trophy leaving the possibility of Premier Trophy points once the weather, team and track settle down.

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