Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Friday 17th August 2007, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Edinburgh needed everyone on top form for the visit of Glasgow, and it was too much to ask as they went down 41-49 to their local rivals.

What might have been had George Stancl and even Daniele Tessari been fit, is hard to say, but in adversity teams need to pull out something special.

Monarchs can?t really say they did that and Glasgow recorded their first league victory at Armadale.

Edinburgh?s first worry was whether James Cockle was going to turn up, which he eventually did a short time before the start. He didn?t seem to have had time to remove the previous night?s dirt from his machinery though.

Heat 1 showed what mood Derek Sneddon was in. He got the better of a tight first turn with Craig Watson and went ahead. Andrew Tully moved from third to go under Watson on the pits corner, but the Aussie repassed him, and at the end of a very watchable opening heat McAllan also came under Tully to share the race.

Monarchs? gamble in giving Tully the opening r/r for Stancl hadn?t quite paid off.

For the first time for a long time, there was no strong reserve in the home camp, with Katajisto gaining an average and dropping down with Tully in the top five. The young Finn again displayed a lack of gating ability and finished at the back as Cockle took second place behind Coles.

Heat 3 was much more disappointing. Parker moved clear, not waiting for Ksiezak, but even so Laukkanen could do no better than stay close without really threatening to pass.

Again it was a visitor gating fastest as Trent Leverington led heat 4, but Matthew Wethers caught him and pulled off a smooth outside pass to share the race. Cockle took his first fall on the first turn.

Laukkanen had changed bikes for heat 5, and he rocketed clear to win in the fastest time of the night. Tully though was stranded at the back again.

Kaj was out again in the next heat, and this time he rode side by side with Derek Sneddon, unchallenged by Leverington (who eventually fell) and Coles.

So we were down to a 2-point deficit. Matthew managed to split the Parker/Ksiezak pair in heat 7 but we were now 4 down, with a couple of more promising heats coming up.

Heat 8 has often been a saviour for us this year, but McAllan put a stop to that with a very quick start. Sneddon gave chase but to no avail, and Cockle took the point from Dicken.

Heat 9 was another comfortable win for Laukkanen but we needed Tully to get amongst Leverington and Coles. He looked more hesitant than usual but finally drove under Leverington and led into the pits corner as the Aussie fell.

To be honest Edinburgh might have fancied a rerun with Coles not too far ahead of Tully, but the ref excluded Trent and awarded the heat.

That was back to 2 down and we had a torrid first turn to heat 10. Derek made a decent start but Robert Ksiezak got under him and took him right to the fence round the first corner. Rider replacement Wethers was also caught up in this and it allowed Parker to turn back under everyone and go ahead. Wethers recovered to pass Ksiezak but we were back to 4 down and that gap just wouldn?t close.

McAllan, having a good match, led heat 11 but Matthew Wethers brilliantly cut under him on the pits corner for an excellent win.

The next question was whether Laukkanen could handle Parker in heat 12. The answer was no as the Glasgow rider made much the better start and raced away. Kaj was second and Cockle fell, so the gap was now 6.

Wethers and Sneddon might have taken a 5-1 from heat 13, having raced round the wide line to get ahead of Watson and Leverington. However Watson got into trouble and both the Glasgow riders came down.

Watson was excluded, but Leverington took his second chance to get ahead of Sneddon and take 2 points.

Heat 14 didn?t look good for us, and so it proved. Ksiezak won easily and Tully?s second place was not enough to take it to a last heat decider.

A good start for Laukkanen raised hopes of a consolation race win, which would have given us the majority, but the home man didn?t seem as fast as earlier and was overhauled with surprising ease by Parker.

Full Result Details