Kings Lynn Stars v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Wednesday 12th August 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

27 supporters on the Monarchs' Chatzone predicted between 22 and 35 points for Monarchs at King's Lynn, so our total of 38 deserves a round of applause.

Only four riders contributed to the total, Aaron Summers leading the way on 16 points. We never really let the Stars settle and recorded two 5-1 advantages, and had Ryan Fisher not crashed on his TR in heat 11 we might have topped forty.

Ryan certainly started with a bang in heat 1, heading Darcy Ward after a great battle. The young Aussie dived through to the front on the final lap but Ryan came back and was adjudged to have grabbed the win.

Aaron split the home reserves with Lambert looking like a good replacement for the injured Kozza Smith (who was present).

Max Dilger rode across the first turn of heat 3 and brought down Sanchez, earning our German an exclusion. A poor start left Matthew trailing in the rerun.

Fisher was in as rider replacement in heat 4 and rounded Graversen on the first corner to take 2 points behind Topinka.

He was straight out again and took a fine heat 5 win from Sanchez and Schramm. Rajkowski was well enough away but couldn't hold off the solid home pair.

Matthew was our next rider replacement and teamed up with Summers. Eklof led the way with Ward at the back looking unconvincing, and eventually pulling out with engine problems.

Matthew took a second in heat 7 and the Michal raced away with heat 8 backed by Aaron. Lambert was in third spot with the Swede Eklof who is perhaps a bit gate-dependant trailing. This was apparently the first visiting 5-1 at King's Lynn this season!

Sanchez and Schramm restored normality with a maximum in heat 9, and Ward finally won a heat in the next one with Matthew heading Eklof.

Now we were in TR territory though unfortunately as at Glasgow, Ryan was coming off the poorest gate, the inside. It wasn't quite such a disadvantage as at Berwick or Glasgow and he was away well enough, looking likely to get a second behind the imperious Topinka - until he lifted frighteningly and flew off the back of the machine.

Rajkowski was impeded and the heat should have been stopped, but with Ryan quickly off it was allowed to continue. This was a blow to our hopes of a decent score and as it turned out, Ryan was now out of the meeting.

We put Aaron on a TR in heat 12 and he duly delivered 4 points behind Sanchez.

He was out again in heat 13 replacing Ryan and riding a fine race to stay with Topinka and Ward for all four laps, albeit just scoring a point.

Even though it was his third heat on the trot Aaron won heat 14 and a tremendous battle between Wethers and Schramm for second went to our man by a tyre for our second 5-1!

To finish with Aaron was out yet again for four in a row, and rode well with Matthew again to keep Sanchez at the back, while Topinka completed his maximum.

It was a good effort but in our current state we really need everyone scoring points.

Full Result Details