Speedway: Glasgow Tigers share points with Newcastle Diamonds in jubilee weekend thriller

Jun 4 2012 By Fraser Wilson

GLASGOW TIGERS skipper Joe Screen roared to a final heat victory to ensure a share of the spoils with the Diamonds on jubilee weekend.

Confidence was high in the home camp following back-to-back Ashfield victories over Redcar and Plymouth.

But Glasgow were forced to battle back from a six-point deficit in the closing five races as the hotly-tipped Diamonds threatened to snatch the points.

Tigers boss Stewart Dickon named the same seven for the third home match in a row but Newcastle were without the Worrell twins Steve and Ritchie who were both in Italy for the semi-final of the World U21 Championships.

The Diamonds elected to use Berwick’s Lubos Tomicek and Sheffield’s Joe Haines as guests in the reserve berths.

Screen sped to a win in heat one and almost set a new track record with his time of 58.1 sec just 0.1 sec out.

Glasgow then fell behind in heat two when the guest reserves for Newcastle recorded an easy 5-1. Diamonds extended their lead with another 5-1 in heat three before James Grieves won a shared heat four.

Tigers pairing of Screen and Chris Mills were on a 5-1 in heat six before Ludvig Lindgren made an excellent pass on Mills on the third lap.

The next three heats were all shared to keep the Diamonds lead at four points. Mark Lemon made a great start in heat 10 to inflict Joe Screen's only defeat of the night and with ex-Tiger Christian Henry passing Mills for third place the Diamonds lead was now six points.

Heat 11 was the race of the night with Aussie starlet Jayden O'Malley leading for three laps and partner James Grieves trying to protect him from the fast-chasing Stuart Robson but unfortunately both the experienced riders passed O'Malley on the fourth lap as the Tigers 4-2 reduced the lead to four points.

A great 5-1 from Screen and Grieves in heat 13 levelled the scores and, with heat 14 shared, it all added up to a last heat decider.

Although Screen stormed to victory, Grieves was unable to pass the Newcastle pair of Robson and Henry so the heat was shared and the left the overall score 45-45.

A draw was a fair result with both teams contributing to a good afternoon racing in front of reasonable crowd.

Glasgow 45
Joe Screen 13+1 Chris Mills 4 Josh Grajczonek 5+2 Filip Sitera 4+1 James Grieves 11 Jayden O’Malley 6+1 Mason Campton 2+1

Newcastle 45
Stuart Robson 10 Claes Nedermark 0 Mark Lemon 8+1 Christian Henry 11+1 Ludvig Lindgren 4+2 Joe Haines 5 Lubos Tomicek 7+1