James Grieves 20 Year Testimonial: Heat 17 Grand Final Willie Dickson Me...

Bordernapolis

As a prelude to a fine night out in Berwick, myself & the missus headed over to Shielfield for the Bordernapolis meeting last Saturday. In spite of the grotty weather, the racing was damn fine. They operated a Handicap system, which produced some excellent racing from those willing to mix it. It was Complin & Fisher in the end, coming down to the last heat to decide the honours. Complin made the best start, keeping Fisher behind him until the flag and taking the meeting by a single point. Jason Lyons took a slightly different approach. Gating in his 1st, 3rd & 5th heats, he took two last places when running from 15 m in his 2nd & 4th, (the handicap for winning yr last race) and took 3rd place by way of having most heat wins, nipping James Wright & Travis McGowan.

A great nights racing, and something a bit different....

James Grieves 20 Years Testimonial

Freddie Lindgren. God! It looked so much better on the camera display. They always do.....

Jonno does the pit-bike equivelent of the Screenie Wheelie

Mitchell's motocross experience pays off.

Mitchell has some fun in the pit-bike race.

McGowan leads Parker, Wethers & Clews into the 1st Bend

James Grieves 20 Years Testimonial

Ty Proctor

Peter Karlsson from Ty Proctor

Startline shenanigans

Joe Haines

Lawson, Parker & Haines. McGowan exiting picture

James Grieves 20 Years Testimonial

Karlsson leads Wethers

Guessing here, but I reckon it's Stozyk from Grieves and Lawson

Katajisto leads Haines & Clews

Kalle Katajisto

Heathersfield Golden Helmet 2010

Greg Blair receives the 2010 Golden Helmet from 2007 & 2009 winner Gary Beaton.


A decent enough meeting all told, given the grubby weather and overall feeling of winding down at the end of another disappointing season. Gary Irving and Patrick Tarp were the top men over the heats, with the slow starting Greg Blair and James McBain making the last four via the semi-final. Blair roared out of the gate in the final with Irving never really getting close to him and James McBain trailing in third. Tarp's bike failed on the 1st bend. Congratulations to Greg, who knuckled down after a poor start and scored the points when it counted.

Special mentions go to Steven Morris, who looks faster than ever and maybe just needs to get his starts nailed. Sixteen year old Rachel Hellowell also rode pretty well, considering she didn't look entirely at home in the condidtions, as well as having some mechanical gremlins. Her race with Steven Morris for a few laps in heat 10 showed what she's capable of. Dale Lamb took a few races to get going in what looks to be a gentle easing back into the sport after a horrible pelvic injury last year.

Glasgow's first signing for 2011......??

Patrick Tarp

John MacPhaill loses it out of the 4th bend. He was a little sore, but needed no hospital treatment.

Dale Lamb, with Stephen Morris chasing in the background

Dale Lamb, Rachel Hellowell and Gary Irving

James McBain

Dale Lamb

Gary Irving

Stephen Morris

Greg Blair

Greg Blair & John MacPhail after a small get off.
Adam Kenyon, in the process of dropping it at the 3rd bend

Eventual winner Greg Blair during the parade.

Heathersfield Gold Helmet

This years Junior extravaganza takes place this weekend. Yes! A whole two weeks before the end of October!! Just think, we might even get some decent weather for it.........

Then again, we might not......

This year the competition will be missing Gary Beaton, who sadly broke his back some weeks back. He's up and about wearing a brace, but it does look to all intents and purposes like he's chucking it for good. Still, the phrase "Never say never" was invented for speedway riders, so we'll just leave it at that for now.... ;)

The line-up so far seems to be:

Greg Blair
James Cartmell
Tom Hill
Gary Irving
Adam Kenyon
Dale Lamb
James McBain
John MacPhail
Steven Morris
Patrick Tarp
Steve Worrall
Adam Wrathall

An excellent and detailed run-down of the riders can be found at the Unofficial Glasgow Speedway site.

This is, of course, minus the four American touring riders being talked about last weekend. Would be good to see them, but even if they don't materialise, that's still a fairly strong field of National League standard riders, with a sprinkling of amateurs to add interest further down the field. Watch out for Dane Patrick Tarp, who visited with Team Viking last season. I've a wee feeling he'll go quite well.

So, get yr erses along, it's only a tenner in (12-15 yrs - £7, Concessions - £4)

See y'all inside!

Glasgow Tigers 41 Sheffield Tigers 48

Nick coming in after his Heat 14 win

Photos are worse than normal this week. A covering of low cloud enveloped Scotland all weekend, making things extremely gloomy and difficult for shooting speeding objects. Here's a selection of the least shit ones to be going on with.....

Ricky Ashworth, chased by Nick Morris

James McBain

John Branney hunts down Ricky Ashworth

Sunday saw a sparse crowd for what was a totally post-cut off league meeting.

Tigers 51 Monarchs 35

Sadly, this heavily altered photo is the only shot I got of Jade Mudgeway, who stepped in for the injured Lee Dicken at No7. The original shot is a blurry mess, but I've managed to salvage something out of it with the help of a photo editor. I'm a big fan of this guy, a real tryer, great style and he loves fast tracks. It's worth a visit to Berwick just to watch him attack the bends there in an almost longtrack style. Sadly he came a cropper at the 2nd bend in heat 14, attempting the Sandi Conda line. Like Sandi, he never made it..... It seems he sustained bruised kidneys and a chipped coccyx. All the best to him and hope to see him back very soon. Also best wishes to Andy Tully, who took a trip to the hospital after crashing in heat 4, sustaining a broken arm.

Talking of walking wounded, Gary Beaton, whose horrible crash some weeks back had many of us a bit worried, was back at Ashfield again. Hope the recovery goes well and we see him riding again in the not too distant future.

Tigers take a sixteen point advantage to Armadale this Friday evening. Is it enough? Some would contend that even a lead double the size wouldn't be enough, We'll see, shall we?

Ryan Fisher leading Shane Parker

Travis heads into the early evening sunlight, on for another heat win.

Josh Grajczonek

Josh gets a last minute squirt of lube on his chain.

George, the Ashfield Cowboy. Best of luck to Geo in Poland, as well as the rest of the Tigers contingent making their way across to the GP.

"Almost got him"

John Branney in pursuit of Willie Lawson

Tractor Boys, Josh & Danny

Travis swings wide, in front of William Lawson & John Branney

3rd Bend Kids Flag

Nick Morris. Not a great day, with various bike issues. Great win in heat 12 on Joshes bike

Josh gets the better of Fisher

Mathew Wethers