KING'S LYNN TAKE THE TROPHY

NEWS Wednesday 30th September 2009, 3:37am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs could not hold on to their first leg lead, and went down 58-38 in the second leg of the Premier Trophy Final, losing 92-99 on aggregate.

We could have no real complaints, other than the bad luck suffered by Aaron Summers in the first leg. At the Norfolk Arena, Ryan Fisher and Kevin Wolbert rode brilliantly, but Andrew Tully and Matthew Wethers took too long to get into their stride, while the others did not get into their stride at all.

Fisher and Wolbert were good enough to match the home top two but lower down, Linus Eklof was again the key man. Rob Lyon used his reserves cunningly and deployed Eklof largely in the 'softer' heats to ensure maximum advantage. Our reserves were outscored by a horrible 18-2.

Fisher won heat 1 from Ward, and scored a 6-pointer over Sanchez and Schramm in heat 5. At that point he had 75% of our 12 points.

Wolbert then brilliantly beat Ward, but two more 5-1s (making 5 in the first 8 heats) put us behind on aggregate at that stage.

Kevin then took 6 points in heat 9 but we needed more than two riders going. Heat 10 was another home 5-1, the third conceded by our normally reliable Tully/Wethers pair.

We looked down and out, but we weren't quite. Topinka took the first point off Fisher but we shared heat 11, and then at last we saw the true Tully with a flying heat 12 win over Sanchez.

Heat 13 was some lineup, and a tough first lap which saw Ward go ahead, Fisher move Topinka over and Wolbert dive through to second. It was shared with Ward doing the night's fastest time.

Then it was Wethers' turn to come to life, beating Schramm in heat 14, but for us to keep the final alive we needed something from our most disappointing performer Aaron Summers. It did not materialise.

The big four were out again in the last heat, the best race of the night with Ward snatching a win from Fisher at the last corner.

Though the position had looked hopeless at half way, by the end it was close enough to have us looking back and wishing we had seen our riders perform as they are capable of.

Perhaps we approached the match with a little too much ?We can do it!? and not quite enough ?This will be very tough!? We can and will do better.

We doff our caps to King's Lynn, congratulate them on victory but warn them that we will be back for another go in the KO Cup Final, assuming they make it.