Imperious Cook powers to maximum

Craig Cook shook off any fitness worries to power to a maximum as Glasgow Tigers ran out convincing winners over Redcar Bears at Ashfield.

Tigers’ No 1 bounced back from a crash last week to seal 15 points as the Bears struggled to lay a glove on a dominant home side at Ashfield.

Glasgow had pulled ten points clear inside three heats and had effectively won the match by Heat Ten. Bears managed to bite back with three race advantages of their own from the last five, but the Tigers were still clear 57-33 victors.

Cami Brown’s men now find themselves ten points off the top of the SGB Championship with three meetings in hand over leaders Leicester Lions with the chance to put up to four more points on the board next week.

Brown said: “It was the same kind of performance as last week but the difference this week is Craig and the imperious maximum he had.

“It just shows how well your team fits together when your No 1 is doing the job of a No 1. Again, everyone chipped in.”

Ben Basso fell while chasing the lead in Heat 14 and Brown continued: “It’s great for the spectators, but not for us. We need to keep a fit 1-7 and he’s a very important member of our team. He’ll learn from that.”

Tigers travel to Birmingham looking for a road win and Brown added: “We really need that. We have had some good away wins so far this season and a couple of disappointments – Oxford was one of them – but we hope we can go and win on Wednesday. That is the next target.”

PICTURE: Photographer Taylor Lanning captures Cook getting the bumps from his team-mates. Picture courtesy of Glasgow Tigers.