Glasgow Tigers v Newport Wasps (Meeting 2)

KO Cup Final 2nd Leg: Glasgow Tigers 49 Newport Wasps 41 (Newport win 106-78 on aggregate)

Well done to Newport Wasps, winners of the 2011 Premier League KO Cup.  A masterful performance at home on Saturday night saw the Wasps take a virtually unbeatable 65-25 lead to Ashfield, where they continued to press the home side to ensure the Tigers wouldn't stage any kind of miraculous comeback on a rather heavy track that saw a number of hairy moments for a few riders.

  With the cup all but lost, and looming double headers, it was a chance for Glasgow riders to get the previous nights frustrations out of their systems and set themselves up for the six remaining meetings that would decide the destination of this years Premier League title, with all but the previous nights top scorer Nick Morris & Michal Rajkowski (withdrawn after a groin strain) picking up decent points.  New boy David Bellego continued to impress despite only 3 points.  He's got plenty speed and with sharper gating, he'll start to pull in the points at Ashfield.

Glasgow Tigers v Newport Wasps

Glasgow Tigers 46 Newport Wasps 50

Grieves, Lanham, McGowan & Watson, heat 15

Alex Davies

2nd half rider, Stephen Morris

Start of heat 13. McGowan cuts Lanham's nose off out of the gate. A little naughty, but the ref let it go.


A big thankyou to Neil Hewitt for lending me his memory card at my time of need, and emailing me the pics last night and today

Glasgow Tigers V Newport Wasps

Funky Rides The Dust Storm

Michael Penfold. Tough afternoon for the youngster. Hopefully with a week to shake off jet lag he'll do a bit better.

Jamie Courtney leads Alex Davies

Travis, Wato & Lee head out of the gate in the 2nd running of heat 1

Berwick V Newport

The spectacular Jade Mudgway. His flat out blasts around the boards provided a fair whack of the entertainment on Saturday night.

Anders Anderson doesn't seem to have got to grips with the Berwick track. He's much better away from home though.

Lining up at the tapes.

2nd bend action

Adrian Rymel makes a rare mistake on the 2nd bend.

More Youtube

Tigers Vs Newport Wasps. Shane Parker bides his time to take the heat victory.

Glasgow Tigers 49 Newport Wasps 42

Opening lap action

Not a great night for photography, too many shots blurring out in the limited light. As for the match, looked like the Tigers might have been on for the bonus late on, but a weak heat 14 pairing of Dicken and Coles were swept aside easily, reserve sub Michael Rajkowski belatedly finding his feet and the ensuing Newport 5-1 putting paid to Glasgows aggregate point hopes. Had David McAllan held on to 2nd in heat 10, then things might have been a little different.


Lee Dicken at close quarters

Individual scores........(minus bonuses)

Shane Parker - 13 - The King of Ashfield, imperious as usual. Poor gate in final heat cost him a maximum but he fought tooth and nail for his point and another lap would maybe have seen him get two.

George Stancl - 11 - Three fairly relaxed wins from the gate. Unfortunately, when George doesn't gate well, he seems to relax even more.

Trent Leverington - 10 - Two wins and two 2nd places saw the Tigers No5 pick up yet another quietly impressive tally. Heat 13 saw him take a ropey first turn, only to get the bike pointed at the apex of the 2nd turn and badger his way rudely past the slightly shocked Chris Schramm to make it a Glasgow 5-1. Allied to Parkers consistent brilliance and Stancl's slightly wayward genius, Leveringtons scoring looks like it could be worth his weight in gold if the Tigers fail to get the middle order firing better.

David McAllan - 4 - Finding it tougher in the main body of the team, he struggled a bit again today. The early season form and that Man of The Meeting award against Mildenhall seems like a long way off now. A 2nd place in the opener and two further third places should have been further augmented by a 2nd in heat ten, but he took the tighter, slower lane around turn 4 and paid the price, letting through Tony Atkin. He then got himslf all crossed up in turn 1 and what should have been a 5-1 turned into a 3-3.

Robert Ksiezak - 5 - Compared to his blistering form on the road down south last weekend, tonights showing was a bit tamer. A heat 2 win and a further 2nd place saw him rest up on 5 points. Definite reserve territory.

Lee Dicken - 3 - Not a great outing for Lee, three third places and never looking like pulling out anything special.

Michael Coles - 3 - A 2nd place in the 2nd heat and a further third marked a fairly inauspicious start for the evergreen Coles. A blown engine in the 14 heat made little or no difference to that particular result. Only time will tell if he's any better than the departed Smethills.

New boy Michael Coles tips it into turn 3