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Glasgow Tigers v Workington Comets
Premier Trophy (Group), 09 April 2006
Ashfield Stadium, Glasgow

Glasgow 44
1Danny Bird32311 ..100
3Lee Dicken01*01*0 ..22
4Kauko Nieminen21322 ..100
5Shane Parker31*333 ..131
6Robert Ksiezak221*T2 1*.82
7James Cockle1*0000 ..11
Workington 46
1Paul Thorp1*31*T. ..52
2Tomasz Piszcz22*22. ..81
3Ritchie Hawkins003.. ..30
4James Wright331*30 ..101
5Garry Stead23322 ..120
6Lee Derbyshire000.. ..00
7Aidan Collins31*1*21 0082

* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).

Glasgow went into this match without David McAllan and used R/R for him instead but Workington were at full strength..

This match had an incredible 11 shared heats as there were never more than six points between the two teams. Workington were defending a 6 point advantage gained last night but, in fact, Glasgow were never in front in this match. In the opening heat Danny Bird took the three points after the race had been pulled back when Paul Thorp got a flier in the first running. Aidan Collins passed both Glasgow reserves to win heat 2 then James Wright won heat 3. In heat 4 Garry Stead led until the last bend but Shane Parker came inside to win the race. In each case the race was shared so the score after 4 heats was 12-12.

The break in the sequence of shared heats came in heat 5 when Paul Thorp and Tomasz Piszcz scored a comfortable 1-5 ahead of Kauko Nieminen to put the visitors four ahead then we had another sequence of shared heats. In heat 6 Garry Stead won by a ‘mile’ from Danny Bird and Robert Ksiezak then in heat 7 Glasgow got a bit of a sickener. Shane Parker was trying to shepherd Robert Ksiezak round for a 5-1 but on the last bend James Wright shocked them by driving round the outside on the last bend to win the race and share the points. Kauko Nieminen took the R/R ride in heat 8 and won the race for yet another shared heat so the score after heat 8 was 22-26.

Garry Stead had another heat win in heat 9 beating Kauko Nieminen but Lee Dicken picked up third place so it was another drawn heat. Heat 10 produced the same result won by Danny Bird then Shane Parker won heat 11. Again the race was shared as Tomasz Piszcz and Paul Thorp filled the minor places. Heat 12 produced a surprising win from Ritchie Hawkins. Surprising? Well he hadn’t looked like scoring a point until then. This heat was also to prove crucial to the final result because, although Robert Ksiezak took second place, Aidan Collins took the vital third place for a 2-4 which stretched the Comets’ lead to 6 points as the heat 12 score read 33-39.

Glasgow badly needed their usual big finish from Parker, Bird and Nieminen but Garry Stead split Parker and Bird in heat 13 to limit Glasgow’s success to four points which still left them four points behind. James Wright won heat 14 to ensure that Workington would not lose the match but Kauko Nieminen and Robert Ksiezak scored the three points which gave Glasgow a chance of a draw in the last heat. It was not to be because again Garry Stead split the Parker/Bird pairing. Although Glasgow took a 4-2 it wasn’t enough and they went down by two points.

Match Report by Merlin