Title Partner
REPORT Saturday 30th August 2008, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
Some of us thought that the current Stoke side would be a major test for the Scotwaste Monarchs. The riders believed it was a match they could win.
After two heats, the rest of us saw what they meant. Monarchs led 10-2 and that was because right from the start they were fiercely determined to show the Potters who were the better side. The home riders had virtually no answer, other than Ben Barker.
Barker is a small and aggressive guy with a large talent and a hot temper, and we saw all sides of him on Saturday.
Anyway, these first two heats. We have come to realise that Mark Lemon sometimes starts with a poor first ride, and so it proved in Stoke colours as our guest Magnus Karlsson snapped off gate four to the front, from Krister Jacobsen (the new one) and Derek Sneddon. Derek wasn?t settling for that and came hard inside the Dane to give us the perfect start.
Heat 2, even better ? we certainly didn?t gate but both Andrew Tully and Aaron Summers rode perfect first corners to streak away from the home pair ? Burrows and Klaus Jakobsen (the old one) who are rated a strong pair.
Thomas Jonasson dominated the first turn in heat 3 and never allowed Ben Barker a chance, in fact Matthew Wethers was just short of Barker at the finish as we continued our powerful beginning.
Next race winner was Ryan Fisher by a distance in heat 4, though the home pair shared it.
We then had a pretty annoying long delay while tractors and water bowsers slowly carried out a track grading session which hadn?t seemed especially necessary.
Derek once again showed how positive and determined he was by leading Ben Barker to the final lap, matching the home star all the way until Barker squeezed by on the last lap. It was Stoke?s first heat winner but he really had to work for it.
The first turn of heat 6 was mayhem. It was difficult to see everything that was happening but it looked like Ryan Fisher made the start, just ahead of Lemon, but Ryan fell on the first corner possibly because Mark ran into him. At the same time Andrew was coming from the outside and trying to go round Krister Jacobsen, and they both came down too.
The referee could not sort it out and asked for all four back, but unfortunately Jacobsen took an ambulance ride with a rib injury. This again meant a very lengthy delay and we were at the 90-minute mark before the heat 6 rerun which was won by Lemon with Fisher and Tully beating Jakobsen ? the guy who scored a 15 point maximum a week earlier.
Perhaps surprisingly the TR was given to Andrew Moore, which must have been on recent form rather than form in his first ride. He was last from the tapes but Buzz Burrows was up ahead, until Thomas hit the wide line and flew past in a brilliant move.
At that point Buzz lifted and that could have been a problem had he veered to either side. However the others got past safely with Matthew taking second as we extended our lead to 28-14, with the TR used up.
With Moore wasting the TR, it was obvious that Barker was taking a TS and that came in heat 8. It was an inherently dangerous situation as Barker soon came amongst our riders, because he certainly isn?t cautious.
Derek was holding him off until the first corner of the final lap when Barker came piling through at pace with Derek spinning off into the fence.
From a view on the outside of the incident it seemed Barker must have been guilty, but referee Wilson viewing from the raised box decided otherwise and so it was a 7-2 to the Potters.
Barker also won heat 9 from Fisher and Aaron Summers could not catch Kristiansen, so we had seen our lead halved to 32-25.
Mark Lemon actually cut past our pair off the second bend of heat 10, but Thomas soon reasserted himself with a brilliant outside pass on the pits corner. Matthew took the point and we were moving ahead again.
Magnus and Derek raced clear in heat 11, and the only chance that they might not score a maximum was when Buzz Burrows fell. Fortunately he cleared the track.
Heat 12 is the one which has become a bone of contention. Once again Thomas raced ahead and for three laps was well clear of Barker. Tully was also very much on the tail of Barker.
Down the back straight for the last time, Thomas lifted and so went into the last corner slightly slower than usual. Barker made an outside challenge, Thomas moved out and the pair bumped, which caused Barker to drop back and lose the second place.
Some kind of scuffle ensued but the referee had no hesitation in announcing the 5-1 to Monarchs.
Ryan and Magnus took 5 from heat 13 in spite of close attention from Mark Lemon, and we had now passed 50.
Matthew took the heat 14 win and we saw an excellent ride from Aaron after losing a lot of ground on the opening bend to catch and pass Kristensen.
We did not put out Thomas for heat 15, even though he wanted to ride, to avoid an unnecessary rematch with Barker. The Stoke captain led all the way and we would have shared the heat, had not Magnus blown an engine on the last corner.
A tremendous performance to put us three points clear at the top of the PL.
© Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway 2024
Bathgate Road
Armadale
EH48 2PD
