Glasgow Beat Makeshift Rockets
(Posted 31/05/09)

It went to the wire but Tigers eventually recorded their first PL points of the season with a 48-42 win over Rye House despite some bizarre refereeing.

Rye were very depleted with three guests and rider replacement but their guests and Chris Neath made sure that Glasgow had to fight all the way.

The old Shane Parker was back in the opening heat.  After gating level with Jason Lyons and holding off a stiff challenge from him on the opening bends, Shane quickly pulled clear and won the heat by a considerable distance in a time just 0.2 outside the track record. Mitchell Davey struggled out of the gate and although he challenged Tommy Allen for most of the heat an error on bend 2 lap 4 saw him drift wide leaving Allen to claim third.

An electric gate from Lee Dicken saw him win the reserves heat with Mitchell claiming second place thanks to an inside pass on Joel Parsons off the second bend of the opening lap.  Parsons never gave up the chase, the two particularly close at the end of the opening lap but Mitchell held him off despite a determined drive from the Rockets guest off the final bend.

Chris Neath was the winner of heat 3 from the gate but Rusty Harrison found the inside line on bend 2 to come from 4th to 2nd on the opening lap.  The race was quickly well spread, the only point of note being Tommy Allen going far too wide at the back on the pits bend of lap 2, trying to ride the boards and sliding off.

Another win from the gate followed in heat 4, James Grieves taking the honours this time and an excellent opening bend from Lee Dicken saw him cut up inside Richard Hall, taking him wide to enable Lee to come through into second place. He then drifted wide onto the outside line managing to power past Andrew Silver on the back straight to give Glasgow their second 5-1 of the afternoon.

Bizarre refereeing came into play in heat 5.  After an unsatisfactory start, correctly called as Ksiezak was rolling, Jason Lyons got the drop in the re-run.  Rusty Harrison gave chase but was a couple of bike lengths down as Lyons went into lap 2. Lyons locked up badly causing Harrison to have to lay is bike down to avoid his fellow countryman.  Unbelievably the referee was the only one in the ground who failed to see it and allowed the race to continue, giving Rye House an undeserved 4-2.  Even Lyons himself looked embarrassed at the decision as he made a point of going over to speak to Rusty in the pits after the race.

Hall made the gate in heat 6 but a Shane Parker drive to the opening bend saw the Glasgow captain come out of bend 2 ahead and he once again went on to win the heat by the proverbial mile.  Lee Dicken appeared to have problems with the entry to the second bend in this heat, locking slightly on laps 2 and 4 which gave the Rye House pairing enough leeway to ensure they filled the minor placing's.
For most of heat 7 the heat was well spread out with Chris Neath leading the way for the visitors and James Grieves in second.  On the last lap, Parsons made up significant ground on Grieves but although closing towards the end there was no real danger.

Tommy Allen was the victim of a strange refereeing decision in heat 8 when he was excluded after being brought down by temporary team mate Joel Parsons at the end of the first lap with the Rockets pairing on a 5-1.  The referee felt there was no contact and instead of excluding Parsons it was Allen who didn’t come to tapes for the re run. In the re run Parsons guided Ksiezak wide on the opening bends then pulled clear for an easy win.

Glasgow gated in heat 9 but Hall was able to easily come under Ksiezak on bend two and then gave chase to Harrison. Rusty rode a good clever race to hold off the Rockets guest for all four laps and claim the win.

Parker comfortably won a well spread heat 10 from the gate with Lee Dicken unfortunately bringing up the rear before the fans were treated to some excellent racing between James Grieves and Jason Lyons in heat 11.  The Glasgow pairing gated but Lyons superbly cut inside both coming off bend two into the lead.  Grieves immediately went for the drive on the wider line and powered round the third an fourth bends using the drive to slip by Lyons as they crossed the line at the end of the opening lap.  Lyons was all over the back of Grieves with Grieves working hard to hold him off. On the third lap, Lyons went wide going into the second bend then cleverly and quickly switched to the inside line, getting just enough drive to take him through into the lead.  James tried very hard to hit back but Lyons held for the remainder of the race.

The initial running of heat 12 saw the impressive Neath gate with Harrison chasing hard.  Unfortunately for Rusty he locked up on the second bend of lap 3, hitting the deck and Joel Parsons and Lee Dicken both did excellent jobs of laying their bikes down quickly although all three ended up in a tangle.  After time to sort things out, the re run saw the Rye House pairing gate but an excellent outside pass by Lee Dicken on Joel Parsons saw Lee come through into second place in the early stages.  There was a good battle between Parsons and Dicken on the early laps, Parsons coming very hard but fair under Dicken on the pits bend of the third lap, drifting out to the fence to re-claim second place. Parsons then pulled clear to give the visitors a 5-1 and level the meeting score.

Grieves hit the front in heat 13 and although Parker missed the gate he nipped sweetly through into second as they came into the backstraight of the opening lap. Lyons was all over the back of Parker and Grieves for all four laps and the fans were treated to a master class in tactical speedway from Shane Parker as he thwarted every attempt Lyons made to get through to shepherd James home for a Tigers 5-1.

With the impressive Neath in as rider replacement and paired by reserve change Joel Parsons there were real fears amongst the Tigers fans that things could slip away here.  However it was Robert Ksiezak who made his best gate of the day and was relatively unchallenged round the opening bends.  Neath caught up with him on the back straight and pressed him for the remainder of the race but Robert held firm.  At the back and largely unnoticed, Mitchell Davey was having his own battle with Parsons trying valiantly to find a way through but without success.

With the Tigers now four points up, it all came down to the last heat to decide where the league points went with four scenarios technically still possible – loss (0-5), draw, win by less than 7 or win by 7.

Rye won the toss and had the advantage of going off gates 1 and 3, something Jason Lyons took full advantage of as he hit the front.  Shane Parker tracked him all the way, getting close on a few occasions before an outside drive off the final bend saw him pass Lyons on the way to the line.  There were two races in one in this heat with Grieves and Neath doing battle behind the front two and it was a battle James won with determined riding.

Glasgow now have their first points in the bag and it could have and should have been all 3.  Harrison and Dicken both had decent home debuts but the one thing that is becoming more obvious with every meeting is that Glasgow really need to somehow pull something out of the bag to return to a 7 man team as rider replacement is not working.

 

 

 

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