SUPERB WIN TAKES US EQUAL TOP

REPORT Sunday 13th July 2008, 0:03am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

With possibly our most committed and impressive performance yet, we landed a vital 48-41 triumph at Reading, where no other side has won in the Premier League.

The major heroes were Thomas Jonasson (12+1) and Derek Sneddon (14), but once again everyone picked up vital points - including guest Stojanowski with 6+1.

Having said that, we did again throw a few points away. Ryan Fisher had a win and a paid win but should have scored another 5 points. He lifted and fell in both his first and third races, but still came back to clinch the win in heat 14.

We took the lead in heat 2 through Derek and Aaron (who rode an excellent second bend) and actually never surrendered the lead.

We took a 5-1 in heat 5 when Ostergaard ran into the rear wheel of Thomas Jonasson. Still we couldn't pull away, but when both Reading riders fell in heat 11 (and were correctly excluded) we built the lead up to 7 points.

Two shared races and a heat 14 5-1 clinched a fine win, and all that remained was to see if Thomas could complete a maximum.

He seemed sure to take the lead round the outside in heat 15, but he was left no room by Ostergaard and crashed alarmingly, bouncing along the top of the air fence.

Amazingly he was out for the rerun, passing and repassing with the Dane before we lost a 5-1. That was relatively unimportant though - Thomas finished in one piece and we took ourselves on to 27 league points, level with Somerset.