Tigers Win Last League Match of 09
(Posted 21/09/09)

Glasgow finished their Premier League season with a home win but the meeting did have a bit of an end of season feel about it with even the tapes showing inconsistency.  One Tigers rider who certainly bucked the trend however was James Grieves who finished the season off with a superb 5 ride maximum.

Again Tigers suffered from a slow start although Tomasz Piszcz certainly didn’t as he got a flier in the opening race.  The referee allowed it to go however and although Shane Parker rounded Rusty Harrison on bend 3 of the opening heat to split the Brummies, Harrison remained close, pulling alongside down the back straight of lap 3 before getting the advantage with a tight inside line on the third bend to give the visitors maximum points.  Josh suffered an engine failure on the second lap whilst at the rear.

In the initial running of heat 2, Jay Herne came to grief towards the end of the opening lap whilst chasing Lee Dicken who was leading. He took a very heavy fall and there must have been worries for the Brummies as to whether he would be able to continue in the meeting - thankfully he was fit to after treatment although was obviously excluded from the re-run of heat 2. The re run itself was effectively over by the second bend, Lee Dicken making the gate and winning by a considerable margin with Mitchell Davey passing inside Craig Branney on bend two to claim second place.

The first tapes failure came in heat 3. In the re-run, Richard Sweetman made a superb start and looked very stylish as he easily wont he heat from William Lawson with Lindgren in third.

It was a fairly level gate in heat 4 but Birmingham's Lyons then lifted. Grieves and Dicken took full advantage to power away and record a very easy 5-1 with Brummies guest Craig Branney getting the point for third place some way behind.

Piszcz again looked as if he had jumped the start in heat 5 but as it was allowed to go it presumably must just have been an electric gate. Lawson had made a decent gate and in the early stages of the race had to work hard to hold off Rusty Harrison whilst also trying to catch Piszcz. On the final lap, William on the inside line pulled level with Piszcz on bend 2 but Piszcz held him off and pulled ahead once more. he then made an error on the final bend drifting too wide but had built up enough of a gap for himself to hold on and William had to settle for second spot.

A good gate from Jason Lyons was enough to give him victory in a spread and slightly processional heat 6 although Josh Grajczonek never stopped trying to close the gap, Shane Parker comfortably in third

Glasgow were dealt a blow after this race with Shane Parker forced to withdraw from the meeting on medical advice with suspected broken knuckles. As it was an injury from the previous night and he started the meeting with it, it meant that he still technically had to have a minimum of 3 rides so Glasgow would have to go with one rider only in one of his remaining two programmed rides.

Heat 7 was marred by another tapes malfunction but it was worth waiting for as, although there turned out to be no passing there was some excellent racing served up particularly between James Grieves and Richard Sweetman. Grieves had got the edge out of the gate but Sweetman was not for giving up and the two raced inches from each other for most of the race with Sweetman trying to find a way through and Grieves holding him off. Some distance back, Lindgren and Davey were also having a battle for the third place, the visiting rider coming out on top.

A good gate from Rusty Harrison in heat 8 was better only by an excellent first couple of bends by Josh Grajczonek who came inside Harrison moving him wide and coming through into the lead. Josh then moved onto the outside line quickly pulling clear in what became a spread heat with Lee Dicken in third.

A puncture saw William Lawson fail to make the 2 minutes for heat 9 and he was replaced by Lee Dicken. Lyons gated but Lee swept round the boards on the opening bends and rode a very wide line for the entire race to take a race win which he clearly enjoyed. Conda unfortunately was again well off the pace at the rear.

Glasgow elected to replace Shane in heat 10, Lee coming in for his third race in a row. He missed the gate after attempting to anticipate but again swept round the wide line on the opening bends to come out of bend 2 ahead before the very late red lights came on. In the re run, the impressive Sweetman gated and was untouchable as he won a spread out shared heat from Josh Grajczonek.

Piszcz got the better of James Grieves out of the traps in heat 11 but James was all over him and able to take full advantage when Piszcz suffered the misfortune of an engine failure on bend 2 of the final lap turning what had looked like a Birmingham 2-4 into a 4-2.

Heat 12 took three running's, Herne anticipating the start in the first and Lindgren unfortunately coming to grief in the second in a classic case of first bend bunching. As it finally got underway, Lawson and Dicken gated although Lindgren was not far behind Lee. The action was all between Lee and Lindgren, Lindgren passing inside Lee on bend 2 of lap 3 but Lee hitting straight back on the outside going down the back straight. Lee held coming off the final bend when Lindgren shot right across the front of him, Lee being very lucky to remain upright. the referee adjudged the move to be more than hard but unfair and excluded Lindgren, giving the Tigers a 5-1.

With Lee having replaced Shane in heat10, Glasgow had no option but to go with only James in heat 13 and thinks looked bleak when the Birmingham pair gated ahead. In a breathtaking ride however, James firstly picked off Tomasz Piszcz at the end of the opening lap before hunting down and passing outside Jason Lyons on lap 2 bend 2. From then on in there was only one winner of the heat.

Heat 14 was not to be a good one for the Tigers however. After a superb opening bend, Birmingham's Richard Sweetman came out ahead and was never going to be troubled. There was a good battle over a couple of laps for second place between Lee Dicken and reserve switch Jay Herne. The two switched places a couple of times on lap three, Herne firstly coming through into second place on the inside of bend 2, Lee passing back on the outside down the back straight. Herne then took the inside route on bend 4 whilst Lee made an error and drifted wide allowing Herne to come through into second spot and inadvertently baulking partner Mitchell Davey at the same time. Birmingham went on to claim the 1-5 with Mitchell Davey getting third place from Lee off the final bend.

It meant that once again we had a last heat decider. After some shenanigans over what gates Birmingham had chosen, William Lawson and James Grieves kept their cool, gated well, Grieves going on to win comfortably with Lawson working hard to hold off the attentions of Lyons and give the Tigers all 3 points.

 

 

 

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