ALL-ACTION EVENING

NEWS Friday 30th April 2010, 1:12am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After a meeting which had just about everything the Scotwaste Monarchs beat Sheffield 56-35 to take their league points total to 6 in two days.

The first two heats were absolute mayhem, with seven riders down, and a delay of almost an hour while Tigers' reserve Arlo Bugeja received treatment. It is not believed his injuries are serious and although there was an additional ambulance and a police vehicle in the stadium, Arlo did not need to go to hospital.

From 8:30 onwards the meeting ceased being a nightmare and we had a hard-fought battle with some excellent racing. Sheffield's opening pair of Ashworth and Skidmore caused the home men real problems, Franc went well too, and it wasn't until the second half of the match that Monarchs took control.

There were some great performances in the home camp though. After a first heat exclusion Ryan Fisher sailed through unbeaten, Kevin Wolbert also had an exclusion and three wins, Andrew Tully rode brilliantly with some sizzling overtakes to drop just one point ? but none of these men won Monarch of the match!

That went to Kalle Katajisto with 13+1, forced on to his second bike after the heat two pileup but exciting and spectacular with some sensational riding. He was also involved in the evening's only real confrontation when Paul Cooper mystified everyone by squaring up to the Finn after a great pass by Kalle.

Jozsef Tabaka showed promise too with one good win, backed by partner Fisher. So plenty for Monarchs to be happy about.

There were so many incidents and good heats that this has to be the best night of the season so far, with it seems no serious outcomes from these two horrible crashes at the start of the night. Full marks to all concerned.

Full Result Details