Title Partner
REPORT Friday 28th March 2008, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
Workington were expected to push Monarchs hard at Armadale, but it didn?t turn out that way.
It was cold again, it was wet again, but the Monarchs? team didn?t let any of that bother them. It did appear that with the obvious exception of Daniel Nermark, some of the Comets did.
The first two heats were both awarded, and both had an element of controversy.
In the first race Ryan Fisher was chasing hard on leader Daniel Nermark when for the second week he clipped the fourth bend fence and fell. Seconds later, Nermark blew an engine entering lap three, while Scott Smith came from a long way back and rammed right into Fisher?s machine up against the fence.
For a start, the current rule insists that all riders should have completed two laps before a race can be awarded. Stupid though this may be, it is the rule.
Ignoring that, Nermark wasn?t under power at the stoppage and should have been excluded. Fisher was rightly excluded and the race was a Comets? 4-2.
The home reserves as usual took the lead in heat 2. John Branney fell and took quite a while leaving the track, so that Andrew Tully was entering the third bend as Branney was pushing off, yards away.
Tully fell, probably because of the conditions rather than Branney, but this time Monarchs were awarded a 5-1 (again, Branney hadn?t done two laps).
Ho hum. Stonehewer made the gate in heat 3 but Lawson brilliantly cut past him down the back straight on lap two. Derek Sneddon passed Charles Wright and Stoney, possibly filled in, pulled out of the race.
A fine first turn by Matthew Wethers gave him a win over Nieminen in heat 4 and in spite of heat 1, Monarchs were now eight points up.
Presumably Nermark had switched machines for heat 5 but it didn?t stop him beating Fisher and Lawson.
Even though Nermark had just recorded 58.6 with the Monarchs? pair chasing close behind, it was decided to re-grade the track and take the top layer off. This caused a lengthy delay though the trackstaff did the job well.
Fears that we could now be seeing a gaters? paradise eventually proved unfounded, but Nieminen won heat 6 fairly easily from Fisher and Sneddon. At this point it seemed the fast gating visiting heat leaders might be starting to take control.
Andrew Tully put a stop to that though when he flew round the outside of Stonehewer to win heat 7 in what was the fastest time of the night.
Monarchs were now 10 up but heat 8 didn?t suit a Comets? TR, so we took a 5-1 from Sneddon and Summers with some ease. The writing was on the wall for the visitors.
Heat 9 was a great race. Nieminen forced his way ahead of Wethers down the back straight but the Monarchs? man came back superbly round the outside of the pits corner, going ahead into the second lap.
William Lawson, riding brilliantly, cut into Nieminen?s advantage and switched under him on the pits corner to complete a brilliant 5-1.
Next up was Ryan Fisher, chasing and catching Carl Stonehewer, and with the score at 40-26 Monarchs were home and dry.
Predictably the TR had been held back for Nermark, who firmly dealt with Wethers round the first corner to take 6 points. By now though Monarchs only needed finishers to win the match.
Lawson chased Stonehewer all the way in heat 12, cutting under him on the last corner and coming close at the finish. The referee gave William the verdict but this was clearly a mistake.
Nermark took heat 13 with Wethers second, and Fisher making a complete fankle of the heat, trying too hard to recover from a poor first corner.
There was never much doubt that Monarchs would hold the upper hand in heat 14, and there was no mistake from Lawson and Tully who took Monarchs? fifth 5-1 of the night.
Nermark duly completed his maximum in the final heat, taking William wide enough on the opening lap to make life awkward for him. William fought back to pass Stonehewer and in the end it had been Monarchs v Nermark.
HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Andrew Tully.
© Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway 2024
Bathgate Road
Armadale
EH48 2PD
