Bears through to KO Cup Semi Finals!
After another excellent performance, the Redcar Agilia Bears progressed to the Semi Finals of the KO Cup with a 95-85 aggregate win – narrowly losing to a strong Glasgow side 46-44.
It was a very close meeting throughout, with the Bears never really letting Glasgow put too much of a dent into the 12 point aggregate lead. Indeed, the Bears led for parts of the meeting and the scores on the night were level going into heat 15. The impressive Rasmus Jensen and Paul Starke got the better of Bears new number 1 Erik Riss and Michael Palm Toft to give the Tigers the win on the night.
It was a solid all round performance from the Bears again. Palm Toft top scored with 11+1, with Riss and the impressive Nathan Greaves both scoring 10. Craig Cook was unbeaten by an opponent for the Tigers on his way to 12 points, with Jensen supporting well with 10.
Bears promoter was pleased with his sides performance, and singled out reserve Nathan Greaves for special praise:
“ All the boys dug deep tonight and made sure we got the job done. We came with the mindset that we were here to win and not to defend a lead. We should be a challenge to anybody on the road now with a very powerful top 3 and hopefully this justifies to some why we made the changes we did earlier this week. Special mention for Nathan Greaves who was the difference between the 2 sides; he has shown immense commitment to the Bears by flying out to Poland in the morning and using borrowed bikes for his European qualifier so he didn’t miss a meeting for us. Well done to Glasgow for winning on the night, they are an impressive team and never stopped battling. We are now looking forward to Sheffield on Sunday and will go there with a lot of confidence and self belief. “
Glasgow Tigers = 46 (85)
1. Craig Cook – 3, 3, 3, 3 = 12
2. James Sarjeant – 1, 1, 2, 0 = 4
3. Rasmus Jensen – 1, R, 3, 3, 3 = 10
4. Paul Starke – 3, 1, 2′, 2, 1 = 9+1
5. Claus Vissing – 2, 2, 3, 0 = 7
6. Connor Bailey – 2, 0, 1, 0 = 3
7. Kyle Bickley – 1′, F, R, 0 = 1+1
Redcar Bears = 44 (95)
1. Erik Riss – 2, 2, 2, 2, 2 = 10
2. Tom Bacon R/R
3. Michael Palm Toft – 2, 3, 3, 2, 1′, 0 = 11+1
4. Jordan Stewart – 0, 1, 1, 1′, 3 = 6+1
5. Charles Wright – 3, 2, 1, 1′ = 7+1
6. Tom Woolley – 0, 0, 0 = 0
7. Nathan Greaves – 3, 1, 3, 0, 0, 2, 1 = 10