Tigers At The Tapes

Glasgow Tigers 40 Sheffield Tigers 50

2009-07-13T17:12:00.000-07:00

We'll say no more, shall we?

Report & scorecard, courtesy of the Unofficial Glasgow Tigers website

In addition, I have a wee appeal:

By clicking on THIS LINK, you can contribute to the upkeep and well-being of THIS garden, currently tended to by our small group of volunteers. No interest in gardening needed, just click on the first link and we will receive a dividend related to the amount of hits the site receives.

Cheers!

Glasgow Tigers V Sheffield Tigers

2009-07-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

Jason Bunyan gets bedded in.

Lee & Chris Mills in conference after the heat 12 misshap.

Ricky Ashworth

Sheffield Team Talk

"So, I flip this switch here and he'll do a 360 on the fourth bend, yeah?"

Glasgow Tigers V Sheffield Tigers

2009-07-13T16:50:00.000-07:00

Jason Bunyan leads the field in heat 4

Josh Auty

Richard Hall

Lee Dicken heads for for three points in heat 8

Lee Dicken & Joel Parson

Glasgow Tigers V Sheffield Tigers

2009-07-13T16:07:00.000-07:00

Josh Auty leads James Grieves, Rusty Harrison & Chris Mills

Top scoring guest rider, Jason Bunyan

Rusty at speed

James leads Ricky Ashworth & Rusty harrison in heat 1

Rusty, Ashworth & Skidmore

Thornhill Scramble Clips

2009-07-06T14:59:00.000-07:00

Absent Again

2009-07-05T15:56:00.000-07:00

Today was the second of three meetings I'll miss this season. To be honest, I did get a few pangs about it, but the Scottish Classic Racing Motorcycle Club scramble at Thornhill in Dumfries-shire is a meeting I always enjoy going to. Like the Bob Mac road races, it has a lovely atmosphere and takes place over a fantastic old style scramble track (fast, flowing and fun).

Anyway, so I missed the new wonderkid Darcy Ward. I'm sure I'll clap eyes on him again sometime......

The Unofficial Glasgow site should have the scorecard up by about now.

I'll leave you with a few shots from todays scramble at Thornhill.

Thornhill Classic Scramble

2009-07-05T15:55:00.001-07:00

Thornhill Classic Scramble

2009-07-05T15:41:00.000-07:00

Glasgow Tigers v Berwick Bandits Heat 12

2009-06-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Rusty Harrison & Paul Clews have a great tussle in heat 12. I filmed it at full zoom as an experiment, and I think it sort of works ok. Next time I'll pull the zoom back a few notches, as it's virtually impossible to catch the riders as they come through bend 3. The idea is to get a better sense of speed and focus in on certain riders, as I don't have a manual focus for vid clips.

Glasgow Tigers 42 Berwick Bandits 48

2009-06-22T15:28:00.000-07:00

A bit of a shocker for the Tigers. R/R still not working out for us and a poor performance from Robert Ksiezak, guesting for Josh didn't help. That said, Rusty, Lee and Mitchell only managed 14 points between them and it was left to Shane and James to try and shore up the gaps. A new rider looks to be on the horizon, but who and where from are still a mystery.

For those expecting some shots from the Newport meeting last weekend, I can only apologise. I was off in East Lothian at the Bob McIntyre two day classic road race meeting instead. Whilst I never like to miss a meeting, it doesn't sound like it was the most exciting afternoon of racing at Ashfield. A win's a win, but you'd want things to be a bit tighter than that......... For those interested, my photos from the Bob Mac meeting at East Fortune can be found here.

Scorecard and meeting report from sunday can be found at the Unofficial Glasgow Speedway site.

Rusty Harrison

Mitchell chases Nick Simmons

Pepe Franc out front, with Ksiezak in 2nd, looking round to see Simmons on his tail.

Mitchell Davey, Heat 14

Glasgow Tigers v Berwick Bandits

2009-06-22T15:21:00.000-07:00

Greg Blair

Grieves powers out of the 4th bend ahead of Makovsky

Lawson, Makovsky, Dicken & Grieves

Parker leads Clews & Franc

Rusty Harrison & Mitchell Davey split the Berwick pairing of Lawson & Simmons

Glasgow Tigers v Berwick Bandits

2009-06-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

William Lawson, Josef Franc & Robert Ksiezak

Mitchell and Shane team ride to a 5-1 in heat 6

Lee checks what's coming round the inside of him.

Franc & Clews split by Rusty Harrison

Nick Simmons

2nd Half Action & Other Photos

2009-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

Return of The Lee

Arthur Sissis. Over exposed photo rescued, sort of............

Josh takes a stroll out onto the pitch for a few words with Michael Max

Mitchell & Robert zip off back to the pits.

Mine's a bottle of Lech!

Random pit scene No 246. The person who names most bodies in this shot gets to take photos for the blog in my absence this weekend at the Newport match. ;D

Arthur Sissis

Glasgow No8 Robert McNeil takes a run out in the 2nd half.

Arthur Sissis takes a spin out on Shane's Bike after the meeting.

Tigers v Rockets Heat 12

2009-06-09T13:42:00.000-07:00

Re-run of heat 12, minus Rusty Harrison. Chris Neath takes the lead, while Lee Dicken & Joel Parsons bash it out for 2nd. Parsons settles it on the third lap and the Rockets take the 5-1 maximum.

Great to see big Lee back and bothering the boards again. Some great moves and passes. Once he's dialled in to Ashfield again, he'll do just fine.

Glasgow Tigers 48 Rye House Rockets 42

2009-06-08T15:37:00.000-07:00

A bit of a close shave on Sunday. A severely depleted Rye House side made life very difficult for the Tigers in a match that looked, after four heats to be heading for a bit of a thumping for our southern visitors. They dug deep though, and can be thankful to Chris Neath and guests Joel Parsons, Jason Lyons and Richard Hall for salvaging a point and serving up some entertaining speedway.

For Glasgow, Shane Parker was back to his imperious best, especially in heats 13 & 15. James Grieves wasn't far behind in the points stakes and Robert Ksiezak did a fine guest turn at No4 to turn in 9+1. Returning riders, Rusty harrison & Lee Dicken both had a mixed day. Lee started well, but faded a little as the meeting went on. Two cracking passes in heat 4 being the hilight. Rusty Harrison fell victim to a Jason Lyons lock up heat 5, and then dropped it in heat 12. Apart from those traumas, he racked up a good heat win and a well taken 2nd place behind Chris Neath in heat 3 with a classic move from the back through the opening bends. Mitchell Davey had a poor meeting by his recent standards, only managing to pick up a paid win in heat 2.

The consensus seems to be that we're one rider short of a team that can win comfortably at home. Nobody is quite sure when Ross will be back, but if it isn't very soon, we could be in a bit of bother. Another issue is the dust devil that is the Ashfield track on warm summer days. It makes for spectacular photos, sure, but it also makes for poor visibility, excessive laundry bills and big reddy brown rings around bathtubs all across west central Scotland. I also get the impression that the dust is a bigger issue to locals than the noise. It'll be interesting to see how the track staff work this one out, as it seems like we're in for a fairly dry summer...........

Report & scorecard can be found here, courtesy of Lioness.

Glasgow Tigers v Rye House Rockets

2009-06-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

Heat 15. Shane stalks Jason Lyons, with James Grieves following on.

Heat 13, Shane holds off a late charge from Jason Lyons.

Shane looks for the grip round the outside in heat 15. A lap later, he would pounce for the heat win.

Parsons comes hard under team mate Tommy Allen in heat 8, sending him into the fence. The ref saw fit to exclude Allen.

Joel Parsons leads Robert Ksiezak in the re-run of heat 8

Glasgow Tigers v Rye House Rockets

2009-06-08T14:59:00.000-07:00

James & Shane head for a vital 5-1 in Heat 13

Chris Neath

Flat out on the home straight

Robert Ksiezak made a welcome comeback to Ashfield

Mitchell Davey

Glasgow Tigers v Rye House Rockets

2009-06-08T13:49:00.000-07:00

The teams take their pre-match parade lap.

Shane Parker's unmistakable style

James Grieves leads Lee Dicken, Richard Hall & Andrew Silver

Warm Up.

2nd Half & Extra Shots

2009-06-05T13:36:00.000-07:00

Robin Tornqvist challenges Andre Compton.

James Grieves leads Charles Wright.

Grieves, Compton & Branney

The Tiger checks what's coming up behind him.

Sod the riders, these guys are the real stars..................... ;)

Steven Morris

James McBain

Phil Learmonth

Glasgow Tigers 41 Workington Comets 49

2009-06-01T15:53:00.000-07:00

Dust, blazing sun and a lesson in trapping from Workington. That's all I remember of Sunday afternoon folks. Oh, ok, I remember Mitchells heroic 'Chariots of Fire' moment and wondering if the big man would get up after collapsing on the track as he crossed the line. I also remember a couple of ugly crashes, one of which has to go down as a moment of madness from Worky's experienced Czech heat leader Adrian Rymel.

Apart from that, I've blanked this one in a fuzzy haze of cider. Might as well get used to it...................

Photos are quite nice though.

Report & Scorecard can be found at the Unofficial Glasgow Speedway site, along with some interesting news regarding team changes. I know it's not a 'progressive' step to take, but 'mon the Rusty Lee!!!' ;)

Glasgow Tigers v Workington Comets

2009-06-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Kevin Doolan celebrates a fine Workington victory.

James takes the win in Heat 15.

Final lap of Heat 15. Doolan takes 3rd as Shane overcooks it slightly.

Heat 15. Grieves from Compton.

Heat 13. Compton, Grieves, Parker & Rymel

Glasgow Tigers v Workington Comets

2009-06-01T15:17:00.000-07:00

James Grieves

Compton leads Parker, Grieves & Rymel in Heat 13

Mitchell sets off on his last lap.............

James Grieves

Shane Parker

Glasgow Tigers v Workington Comets

2009-06-01T12:43:00.000-07:00

Best race of the day. Aaron Summers holds off the attentions of a distinctly on form Andre Compton.

lee Smart in his las Tigers outing. Not quite the fireworks of the previous week, but a few good passes for minor places showed that he'll be a bit of a loss.

Aaron Summers

Adrian Rymel from Mitchell Davey, Aron Summers and Charles Wright.

Haven't taken a decent shot of Shane in weeks. Here's one.............

Glasgow Tigers 45 Somerset Rebels 44

2009-05-25T12:45:00.000-07:00

Rebels win 90-89 on agg

And so, a meeting that never really looked in doubt, was snatched away by a tenacious, persistent Somerset side. As well as we rode at their place, they rode better when it mattered in Glasgow. The track looked over-watered and caught a fair few out. It's only a guess on my part, but it's possible that that this was in anticipation of a bright, warm, sunny day. It looked that way early on, but by lunchtime, it had started to cloud over and the moisture in the track was never going to evapourate.

It was a strange old meeting though. Held in front of the poorest crowd I've seen at Ashfield in a long time, on a grim, overcast day, it had a bit of an anti-climactic feel to it. Nonetheless, there was some pretty good racing. Lee Smart provided most of it for Glasgow, with two wins and some cracking over-taking maneuvers. We'll miss him if he gets recalled by Birmingham. Mitchell looked to have heat 2 wrapped up when he caught too much grip on the 2nd bend and lifted. he put it down fairly safely and remounted, but by that time a 5-1 had become a 3-3. Not a bad day, but he'll be looking to pick up more points in coming weeks. Jossh had another quiet weekend, but we all know what he can do and he should be back amongst the points in time. Shane had a slow start in heat 1, leaving Mitch to chase down Emil Kramer, but picked up later as the track became less heavy. James was his usual self until a bad start in Heat 15 saw him have to come from the back. It looked at first like he was trying the same trick as last week against Ryan Fisher, and ran out of track, but looking at Ian Adam's pics and the clip I took of Heat 15, it seems like he maybe lost control in the middle of the 3rd bend and torpedoed the pit entry fencepost. A broken leg was initially suspected, but we're all relieved to hear that his leg is still in one piece and he should be back with us in a few weeks time. A speedy recovery James!

Finally, new man Robin Tournqvist found himself struggling badly. He should be fine with a few meetings and some track time under him, but he can't afford to take too long in settling down. I wish him all the best at Armadale on Friday night though, it'll be a pig of an away debut.

Report and Scorecard can be found at the Unofficial Glasgow Speedway site.

Glasgow Tigers v Somerset Rebels

2009-05-25T11:55:00.000-07:00

Parker and Johnstone battle it out in heat 13

Lee comes round to take the applause after one of his excellent heat wins.