The Scorpions fly from the tapes to lead heat 1, Steady disinterested in third place. Andre makes a hash of the second turn in heat 2 allowing Ryan Douglas into the lead. Josh Bates passes Matt Williamson on the second lap. Matt falls entering turn 1 on the third lap but remounts. Josh then falls on the last lap and the referee stops the race just after Ryan had overtaken Matt. There was now a lengthy hold up while the blade came out to scrape all the patchy and lumpy track surface to the outside. When heat 3 eventually got underway it was more of the same. Ashley Birks easily had the measure of Leigh Lanham, and Taylor Poole (mounted on his second machine as the first wouldn't start) trailed behind Thomas Jorgensen. Adam Roynon made a good start in heat 4 but Josh Auty blasted around him out of turn two. Ryan Douglas was careering wildly around in third place allowing Josh Bates to pass him on the second lap. Claus Vissing and David Howe make heat 5 a repeat of heat 1 this time ahead of Leigh and Taylor (still struggling with his bike). One third of the match gone and the Scorpions have a commanding and well deserved 12 point lead.

Steady's on a tactical ride in heat 6 but has no answer when Josh Auty goes around him out of turn 2. Thomas is warned for moving at the start but it is Adam who shows first in the restart. Andre goes around Ashley into turn three but Ashley claims the place back with an inside pass off the fourth turn on the next lap. Simon Nielsen leads heat 8 until David passes him on the inside of the fourth turn and Andre seems to have the beating of Ryan until the last bend when Ryan goes around him. Leigh is wearing the black and white in heat 9 but it's Josh Auty who takes the lead. Steady is last away from the tapes in heat 10 and passes his team mate at the start of the second lap, and Ashley Birks on the third, but Thomas is too far ahead to be caught. Two tactical rides used and we still trail by 12 points.

Andre and Adam out gate the unbeaten Claus and David in heat 11 for the Tigers first 5-1. The fight-back is over by heat 12 with Josh Bates shedding a chain and Leigh losing the lead to Ryan off the very last bend. Josh Auty shows a clean pair of heels to everyone in heat 13 while Steady dives under Claus into turn three to claim second place. Taylor is alongside Andre in heat 14 but has his line taken allowing the Scorpions past and Ryan shadows Andre until the last bend before diving through on the inside. The Tigers lead heat 15 until Josh picks off Adam on the third turn, but Steady holds onto the lead for his first win of the evening.

Perfect weather for track preparation and Claus won heat 1 in the fastest time of the season, but Steady in particular looked intimidated. Andre claimed it was too grippy and so all the hard work was undone by the blade. The conditions then suited the Scorpions best, or was it just that they were hungrier following their poor start to the season. Fingers crossed that the weather stays fine over the weekend and that the track can be rebuilt after the stock cars have destroyed it. We'll need a good result against the Redcar Bears as I can't see us doing much at Brough Park on Sunday.

Awful programme. Weird paper, nasty colour photos, microscopic print on some pages, and much too heavy boxes on the race card. Next weeks date on the front cover, and if they can get the visiting teams riders names spelled correctly, how long before they can do the same with the home riders?

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