Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

Needing to avoid a huge defeat to qualify, we went to town at Glasgow and whacked in an amazing 58 points against a very disappointing Tigers? outfit.

We were very good and they were very bad, and even allowing for the unfortunate loss of Trent Leverington after a heat one crash, Tigers will surely be looking to make team changes shortly. Certainly Stewart Dickson?s post-match comments on the mike suggest that.

Their performance though wasn?t our problem, and the Monarchs? riders simply concentrated on piling up every point they could. Seven 5-1 heat wins (all the races Parker wasn?t in apart from heats 1 and 13), 10 race wins (all the ones Parker wasn?t in) ? where do you begin?

No-one will have fonder memories of the occasion than Aaron Summers who scored a paid maximum, following three easy wins with an amazing ride in heat 14 when he touched the tapes and had to go off 15 metres. That got the biggest cheer of the day from the Monarchs? contingent.

Heat 1 was an unfortunate start as Ryan and Trent Leverington both headed for the outside of the second turn. Ryan was in front, Trent didn?t back off, and he hit the fence.

Derek Sneddon made the gate in the rerun though and stormed home in a time just 0.6 outside the track record!

Aaron and Andrew took a comfortable 5 in heat 2, Andrew passing Grajczonek on lap one, and William and Thomas shared heat 3 behind Parker.

Aaron was away again in heat 4 and though Brady briefly held second, Matthew swept past him with ease.

The pattern continued. Parker won heat 5 but Sneddon and Fisher shared it.

We then saw the not-unfamiliar sight of Parker taking a TS ride in heat 6. He was replacing Leverington who unfortunately was out of the meeting.

Matthew though was standing no nonsense and soon stormed ahead of Ksiezak. Andrew held up Parker and even re-passed him at one point, but eventually he fell as he almost ran into the back wheel of the desperately unimpressive Ksiezak.

So we were now 6 ahead, but with two heats without Parker coming up, we whacked in another 2 5-1?s. This included a failed TR by Ksiezak in heat 8.

Parker won heat 9, then we took another two 5-1?s from the next two heats he wasn?t in! Get the picture?

Ross Brady had his worst ride yet in heat 11 but with Grajczonek having to work so hard to replace Leverington, Brady had to be left in.

Heat 12 was actually an advantage to Glasgow through Parker and Grajczonek, and they shared heat 13 with Derek Sneddon getting in a fankle at the back.

Then we had the dramatic completion of Summers? paid max, riding between Dicken and Grajczonek at the end of lap three, while up ahead of him Thomas Jonasson took his score to paid 11 from 4. We just didn?t have a failure.

Parker was in the last heat so that was a 3-3, and that was that ? 34-58.

Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

For our last Premier Trophy match we head to Glasgow on Sunday needing to score only 25 points to qualify for the semi-finals.

The hard work has already been done and the results from the section leave us with very little to do to secure the top spot from our section. The home and away wins against Berwick have made it a successful weekend so far but the team will be looking to make it three on the trot to keep the winning run going.

We won at Ashfield on our recent visit to pick up the Spring Trophy but that is no guide to this match. The Glasgow team has now been changed around by virtue of new interim averages coming into force. The top pairing consists of Trent Leverington and Robert Ksiezak. Shane parker moves to number three to partner Lee Dicken who moves into the main body of the team from reserve. Ross Brady takes on the third heatleader role and is partnered in turn by the two reserves Josh Grajczonek and Mitchell Davey.

The Tigers will be particularly anxious to avoid a hat-trick of home defeats. Two weeks ago they lost by one point at home in a Premier League match to King?s Lynn in a last heat decider then last week they collapsed to a twelve point defeat in the first leg of their Knock Out Cup tie. Things brightened up in midweek for them, however, when they won at Birmingham although not by enough to beat the Brummies on average.

Indications are then that this could be a close run affair and, certainly, a victory is not of paramount importance to us. Nevertheless there is always a lot of feeling in derby matches and both teams will be doing their best to win the match. A lot of pressure could fall on the two young Australians in the Glasgow side who now form the reserve partnership since they will have to come up with the points Lee Dicken provided in many of their home matches. It remains to be seen how the new pairings work out and indeed just how the Tigers will actually line up. Ross Brady missed the match at Birmingham and they had to use Rider Replacement in his absence. Mitchell Davey was also absent and it?s fair to say that a great deal of the Glasgow win was due to the points scored by Chris Mills who guested for him (8+1).

From our point of view the target is a minimum of 25 points and an injury free day.

The likely teams are:

Glasgow ? Trent Leverington, Robert Ksiezak, Shane Parker, Lee Dicken, Ross Brady, Josh Grajczonek and Mitchell Davey.

Edinburgh ? Derek Sneddon, Ryan Fisher, William Lawson, Thomas Jonasson, Matthew Wethers, Andrew Tully and Aaron Summers.

May the better team win.