Title Partner
REPORT Friday 4th June 2010, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
A big crowd gathered in the sunshine hoping to see an exciting Scottish speedway derby. Instead they witnessed the match that never was.
The Scotwaste Monarchs came to race, and duly picked up big scores and pay packets. The Tigers? riders were not happy, we know that because they said so, but they failed to provide any serious opposition in their twelfth match with new averages due in seven days time.
Ryan Fisher was close to the track record in heat 1, and new boy Tobias Busch was not too far behind. Travis McGowan stopped at the start and pulled on to the centre, while Lee Dicken plodded round well adrift.
Jamie Courtney stopped in heat 2, in fact he never got above walking pace all night. Katajisto was wobbly but won easily from Andersen, while Dilger had a bike problem and struggled home for the point.
James Grieves made a very slow start in heat 3 and never challenged the Wolbert / Wethers pairing.
A clash between Katajisto and Andersen on the first bend of heat 4 appeared to be Kalle?s fault for locking up, but Andersen was blamed and excluded. As Grajczonek had already stopped and gone on to the centre green, the rerun featured just Tully and Katajisto for a 5-0 which made the score 19-4.
By now it was obvious what was going on, though probably everyone hoped it wasn?t true and that Tigers would start racing properly.
Wolbert and Wethers led again in heat 5 with Dicken and McGowan well back. The Tigers? pair tangled up and McGowan actually fell off! He wasn?t going fast enough to hurt himself.
Grajczonek actually took a second place in heat 6, beating Busch, and Grieves on a TR headed Max Dilger behind Tully in heat 7. The score was now 32-11.
Tobias Busch took his first race win in heat 8, looking good and recording a time of 56.5, most satisfactory.
Wolbert and Wethers took another easy 5 from heat 9, with Grajczonek third for most of the heat before slipping to the rear behind Andersen.
Fisher and Busch were next to take 5 as Grieves got his slowest start yet and didn?t challenge.
Tully and Dilger were on a 5-1 in heat 11 but in a brief flurry of action, McGowan (on a TR) and Dicken passed Max for a 5-3 heat advantage.
Tigers had their reserves out in heat 12, so it was no surprise that Wolbert and Katajisto took a maximum advantage. Kevin to be honest had not looked especially comfortable, but he had an untroubled 12-point maximum.
Grajczonek exceeded the 2-minute allowance in heat 13 and went off 15 metres. Fisher led with McGowan in second for three laps, till Glasgow?s no. 1 went to the fence on the last lap, allowing Tully a simple pass and a paid win.
Grieves beat Dilger again in heat 14 as Matthew won the heat.
McGowan and Grieves came out for the last heat against Wethers and Katajisto. What thrilling denouement would we see? Actually it was quite entertaining in a morbid sort of way.
Grieves stopped early and came off the track, but this time he was followed by Matthew on to the centre green, leaving Katajisto and McGowan. On lap three though, Kalle suddenly tumbled and McGowan had no option but to lay his bike down.
He was awarded three points, which must have come as a big surprise to him and could make it awkward for Glasgow to put together the team they wanted.
How many people will come to watch Edinburgh v Glasgow matches in the future? How can they be sure that they will see a proper fixture? These are questions that must now cause concern.
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Bathgate Road
Armadale
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