A DRAW, BUT COULD HAVE BEEN A WIN

NEWS Saturday 22nd August 2009, 10:11am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We would certainly have settled for a draw at Derwent Park before the start, but we should have done even better on a long night.

The match yawned its way past the three hour mark, some of the delays being understandable and some not.

We have a transitional team at the moment so we should perhaps be grateful for what we get, but luck was certainly against the Comets on Saturday.

We led by four going in to the final heat, and Matthew Wethers held second going into lap two, but unfortunately he spun off on the next bend. Rymel laid his bike down but couldn't avoid the fallen rider, however we think Matthew was OK.

In the rerun we lost the 5-1 and had to settle for the draw.

Workington started without Richard Lawson and Craig Cook, and lost Phil Morris aftera simple fall in heat 1.

The home heat leaders were winning most of the races. So the match became a case of: could we take more points off the heat leaders than we lost to the reserves?

The best moment for Monarchs was a brilliant win by Kevin Wolbert in heat 9, winding up for a superb outside pass on the last bend against Rymel.

Ryan Fisher beat Doolan in heat 1, but otherwise the only points we took off the heat leaders were against Compton who had two engine failures while ahead of our riders, and who lost to Matthew Wethers in heat 14.

John Branney was a home hero and our riders allowed him too many points, some from the back.

Wolbert was our main success but Max Dilger has still to show us why he rates almost Wolbert's equal on the continent.

Full Result Details