SOMERSET ran out convincing 51-41 winners at Glasgow yesterday as the Tigers struggled to overcome the absence of their captain.

Theo Pijper was missing for the Ashfield side as he was on long track duty in a contest which still produced plenty of thrilling racing.

The home side actually took the first spoils with a 4-2 in heat one, and with Glasgow getting their second heat win in the following race to make it 7-5, it looked as though the Tigers could prove potential spoilers to the visitors' hopes of returning to the Premier League summit.

But the Rebels' 5-1 in heat three sent them in front and that was where they remained for the rest of the meeting.

Glasgow did come back into the contest when new boy Victor Palovaara was joined by Rusty Harrison for a 5-1 in heat 10.

Harrison and Kasper Lykke were then involved in the race of the day in heat 11 with former Tigers Charles Wright and Nick Morris.

Morris ended the winner, though, and the Rebels headed home the remaining four heats to win by 10 points and leave Glasgow boss Stewart Dickson a frustrated man.

He said: "I played about with my programme before and I picked four riders that would need to score double figures - that was my plan.

"I knew it was going to be tough but it just shows you how easy to ride our track is. Look at Brady Kurtz, he finished four races and he won three of them and was flying in three of them, yet he couldn't ride Edinburgh's Armadale. He scored one point there on Friday night.

"It was a bit flat and we were weak, there was no doubt about it. We were missing Theo, who has arguably been our best rider at home along with Rusty in the last month or so.

"But I hate to lose - that's just it."

The home side were also weakened by the absence of French teenager Dimitri Berge, who could miss the rest of the season after breaking a wrist in a long track accident during the week.

It is the 18-year-old's second major injury of the year having only returned to the track at the end of July following a three-month spell on the sidelines.