Both sides were using guests at reserve. New signing Stefan Nielsen broke his collar bone at Ipswich on Thursday, and Jack
Parkinson-Blackburn dislocated his shoulder at Owlerton with resultant nerve damage. Ryan Douglas also suffered concussion
at Foxall Heath so the Scorpions were operating rider replacement as well. The Tigers trapped ahead in heat 1 but Carl Wilkinson passed Todd out of turn two and Michael Palm Toft dived past on turn three. The Scorpions reserves gated ahead in heat 2 and although Ron Branford passed Rob Shuttleworth on the last turn of the first lap he never challenged the home pair. Lasse Bjerre and Josh Bates emerged ahead in heat three. Lewis Kerr briefly challenged but Carl Wilkinson was tailed off. Kyle Howarth passed Josh Auty out of turn two to lead heat 4 and Rob Shuttleworth was a match for Josh Bailey to finish third. Bradley Wilson Dean was rider replacement in heat 5 and passed Todd Kurtz into third place on the second bend, but was shown a clean pair of heels by race winner Josh Grajczoek and Lewis Kerr. Tigers have been first past the flag in four of the first five heats yet only hold a slender 2 point lead.
Kyle traps ahead from the inside gate in heat 6 and exits the second turn right out by the air fence. In the mayhem which
ensues behind him Carl and Michael carve up Rob Branford. (See my photo on the left above).
The Tigers trap ahead in heat 7 and Josh Bates survives a hairy
wheelie on the apex of the third turn (see out of focus picture on right above). Lasse impresses with his second win while it's Josh, Josh and Josh in the minor placings.
(That's Bates, Auty and Bailey by the way!) Bradley moves before the tapes rise in heat 8 so although the Tigers make a
brilliant start Maggie penalizes them by calling all four back. Guess who traps second time. Carl takes the win but all eyes
are on reserve switch Bradley and Todd who seem glued together. Todd dives past on the pits turn lap 3 but Bradley switches back
and repasses on turn four. Todd then uncharacteristically goes for the wide open spaces and swoops around him out of turn two
and carries the momentum to the chequered flag. Great race! Kyle trapped to win heat 9 and Rob Branford was about to join him
until his outside swoop was intersected by Lewis. Heat 10 was a cracker with all four riders in contention on the first lap.
Josh Bates crossed the finish line ahead at the end of lap one and Carl passed Lasse for second place. Lasse rounded Carl out
of turn two but it is still nip and tuck until the last lap when Michael rounds them both to steal second place. Tigers now
lead by 6 points with eight race winners to the home teams two.JoshG gated well from gate one in heat 11 but super guest Bradley swooped around him to lead down the back straight. JoshA locked up on turn two but was directly ahead of Todd who had to shut off or collect him. Bradley spent the whole race high and wide and JoshG couldn't make any move stick while JoshA just managed to contain Todd and the Scorpions narrow the defecit. Lewis takes Lasse wide on turn 2 at the start of heat 12 and Bradley who was on an outside swoop from gate four was left with nowhere to go and baled out before swiftly clearing the track. Heat thirteen was the clash of the top men. The Tigers led by the second bend with Kyle wide around JoshG into turn three and untroubled after that. Lewis takes the r/r and Josh Bailey replaces Bradley, while Rob Branford replaces his namesake for the Tigers in heat 14. The home pair lead by the back straight but Josh Bates simply picks them off one at a time to leave the Tigers eight points ahead into the nominated heat. The Tigers require a shared heat or better to claim the extra match point and nominate JoshG and captain Kyle. Lewis and Michael are Dave Peet's choice. The Tigers gate ahead with Kyle once again on the outside line and both Scorpions pass Josh by the end of lap 2. Josh battles back into third place on lap 3 and Lewis retires straight into the pits on the last lap. All four match points to the Tigers thanks to a powerhouse display from their top four who dropped just six points between them.