The first-leg of Glasgow Tiger’s SGB Championship play-off, semi-final against Poole Pirates is now scheduled for Dorset on Wednesday after Sunday’s attempt north of the Border was curtailed by rain.
A downpour brought proceedings at Ashfield to a halt after Heat Five, with the home team four points ahead. After a break for track work, racing resumed but further discussions were held when Tigers guest Paul Starke fell on what was said to be a greasy surface.
With spots of rain still in the air, the referee decided the meeting would not be completed and the match was abandoned with the result not standing.
The fixture will now be restaged at a later date, meaning Wednesday’s match in Poole will now be the first-leg and the winners meed Leicester Lions in the Grand Final after the Midlands club comfortably beat misfiring Edinburgh Monarchs.
Cami Brown, Glasgow’s team manager, said: “The track just wasn’t raceable after the rain unfortunately. Paul Starke fell off while we were on what looked like a comfortable 5-1, and he came in and said there was just no grip at all.
“Craig Cook came in after his previous heat and said you can ride round, but you can’t race, so the fans wouldn’t see proper racing and I think it was the right decision.
“Wednesday night is going to be difficult – Poole are going to be fired up for it – so we need to make sure our guys are fired up too. We go to Plymouth on Tuesday first (to race a re-arranged league fixture) and we’ll get some bike time for some of the guys who looked a bit rusty on Sunday having not raced for some time.”
PICTURE: Racing before the rain came courtesy of Glasgow Tigers and picture by Taylor Lanning
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