Tough day at the office for Scorpions at Glasgow

GLASGOW TIGERS 57 SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS 33 (PREMIER LEAGUE)

FLUIDAIR POWER Scunthorpe Scorpions, supported by Henderson Insurance, suffered a series of trials and tribulations in a 33-57 defeat at Glasgow yesterday afternoon (Sunday).

The meeting took three hours to complete, after problems with the starting gate led to multiple re-runs of Heat 1. The meeting was eventually held with a piece of elastic used in place of the starting tapes.

Missing three riders through injury (Josh Auty, Ryan Douglas and Alex Davies), the Scorpions were soon up against it, as the Glasgow Tigers raced into a 25-11 lead.

To compound the Scorpions’ misery, Carl Wilkinson blew his bike up while on a tactical ride in Heat 7. Glasgow rider James Sarjeant fell as a consequence, and Wilkinson was excluded from the re-run. Without a working bike, Wilko took no further part in the meeting.

Theo Pijper (pictured), returning to his old stamping ground, then won successive races, while there was an alarming spill involving Kozza Smith and Ben Wilson in Heat 9, with Richard Hall promptly laying the bike down, but the bike continuing and colliding with Smith. Smith went off to hospital with a suspected broken thigh.

With Richard Lawson looking untouchable on his way to an 18-point maximum, Glasgow pulled further ahead in the closing stages, while guest Ben Barker gave the visitors some cheer with a superb from-the-back win in Heat 13.

Scunthorpe’s tough afternoon was illustrated by Heat 14.  All set for a 3-3, Wilson ran into problems, and he and team-mate Nike Lunna hit the deck, with Glasgow’s Victor Palovaara surprisingly awarded a paid win.

Scorpions’ team manager Dave Peet said: “It wasn’t ideal to come up to Glasgow, one of the strongest teams in the league, with just four of our own riders, but it’s just one of those things, due to the injuries we’ve suffered.

“Carl Wilkinson blew his bike to bits while on a tactical ride. He had just one bike of his own for this meeting, since the other one is away being fixed after a previous blow up, and we didn’t really have anyone who could lend him a bike, plus Carl didn’t want to be responsible for bending someone else’s machine.

“Ben Wilson had a couple of big offs during the meeting. In one of those, Kozza Smith also came off, and he went to hospital with what is suspected as a broken leg, so we wish him well.

“Ben also came down, along with Nike Lunna, in Heat 14. By the end of the meeting, our side of the pits looked a bit like a scrapyard.

“But there were some positives in there as well. Nike Lunna did very well on his first-ever visit to the track, and once he got dialled in, Theo Pijper was flying.

“Ben Barker took a while to get going, but then produced a brilliant ride to win Heat 13 from the back against Aaron Summers.”

GLASGOW TIGERS 57
1. Nick Morris R/R
2. Dimitri Berge TX 1 2 1 1* (5+1)
3. Richard Lawson 3 3 3 3 3 3 (18)
4. Kozza Smith 1 2* 3 X (6+1)
5. Aaron Summers 3 3 1* 1 2 R (10+1)
6. Victor Palovaara 2* 1 3 2* (8+2)
7. James Sarjeant 0 3 2 1* 1 3 (10+1)

FLUIDAIR POWER SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS SUPPORTED BY HENDERSON INSURANCE 33
1. Ben Barker (Guest) 2 0 0 3 2 (7)
2. Theo Pijper 1* 1 3 3 2 1* (11+2)
3. Ryan Douglas R/R
4. Carl Wilkinson 2 X# (2)
5. Richard Hall (Guest) F 0 2 1* 0 (3+1)
6. Ben Wilson 0 0 2 0 FX (2)
7. Nike Lunna 1 2 0 2 2 1 (8)

# = tactical ride

1: (Re-run four times) Summers, Barker, Pijper, Sarjeant (fell, remounted), Berge (excluded, touched tapes), 57.5 (3-3) (3-3).
2: Sarjeant, Palovaara, Lunna, Wilson, 58.7 (5-1) (8-4).
3: Lawson, Wilkinson, Smith, Hall (fell), 58.1 (4-2) (12-6).
4: Summers, Lunna, Palovaara, Hall, 59.1 (4-2) (16-8).
5: Lawson, Smith, Pijper, Barker, 57.2 (unofficial track record) (5-1) (21-9).
6: Smith, Hall, Berge, Wilson, 58.4 (4-2) (25-11).
7: (Re-run twice) Pijper, Sarjeant, Summers, WILKINSON (TR) (excluded, cause of stoppage), 58.9 (3-3) (28-14).
8: Pijper, Berge, Sarjeant, Lunna, 60.0 (3-3) (31-17).
9: (Re-run) Lawson, Wilson, Hall, Smith (fell, excluded), 59.5 (3-3) (34-20).
10: (Re-run) Lawson, Lunna, Berge (three riders only), 58.9 (4-2) (38-22).
11: Palovaara, Pijper, Summers, Barker, 58.7 (4-2) (42-24).
12: Lawson, Lunna, Sarjeant, Wilson, 58.8 (4-2) (46-26).
13: Barker, Summers, Berge, Hall, 59.2 (3-3) (49-29).
14: Sarjeant, Palovaara, Lunna, Wilson (fell, excluded), awarded – no time (5-1) (54-30).
15: Lawson, Barker, Pijper, Summers (ret), 58.8 (3-3) (57-33).