Title Partner
REPORT Saturday 5th June 2010, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
A 12-point margin didn't seem a great deal to take to Rye House for the second leg of the KO Cup tie, given the strength of the Rockets in their home matches, but obviously no-one told the Scotwaste Monarchs.
It would be hard to think of a more resounding victory, or a more impressive or exciting performance, in our 62 years of existence.
When I say exciting, I don't necessarily mean the quality of racing, because it was too one-sided. But it was thrilling to see our riders surge fearlessly into the first turn, and keep the throttle on for four laps in every heat, while the home men (other than Sundstrom) were tentative.
The pre-match rain which lasted from 5:15 to nearly 6 did have an effect, but it would be wrong to suggest that the track was a muddy mess. It wasn't. In fact to the layman's eye it looked better than the normal Rye House with a bit of grip on the surface. The first and second bend rode fine but it was possible to hit trouble down the other end.
The most remarkable moment was Ryan Fisher's first corner in heat 13 when he stormed round everyone after what had appeared a poor start - a stunning move reminiscent of Rickardsson at Cardiff a few years ago!
It was Ryan along with Tobias Busch who got us off to a tremendous start with a heat one 5-1. Frampton stopped - he wasn't well placed anyway - and Bowen could make no impression. Good to add four to our lead but of course we expected the Rockets to come back hard.
Heat 2 was a really tight first corner, and Kalle was so brave on his first ride at the track to race round the lip of the camber on the first corner to the front.
Max got a point when Kyle Hughes packed up, and it was interesting that the Rockets' handy reserve wasn't looking threatening anyway.
Wolbert and Wethers next, Kevin on his Rye House debut, and lo and behold we were off again for another 5 points! This time home captain Neath dropped out and we could hardly believe what we were seeing here. Nor, no doubt, could the home support.
Linus Sundstrom has been in great form recently and we expected something from him. He rode well in heat 4 - but Andrew Tully rode better! No-one in the PL turns harder than Andrew and he was brilliant in this one, leading all the way with the Swede straining to get near him. Kalle finished third.
Then came the bad news - Andrew hadn't had a dirt deflector on, and all the hard work was wasted as he was excluded. So we led 16-8 when it should have been 18-6.
Fisher flew in heat 5 to win easily, and there was a point for Tobias as Neath's woes continued - he fell off.
Andrew Tully put his disappointment from heat 4 behind him for a super win in heat 6, and the two Ws shared heat 7 behind Sundstrom. 26-16 and no real sign yet of a Rockets' fightback.
Kalle led from the first bend in heat 8, and Tobias was in second going up the back straight. Bowen came under him, putting Tobias in an awkward position on the more difficult bend where he crashed.
He did exactly the right thing though, with Kalle ahead, he jumped up and speedily cleared the track.
Still we led by 10 and next we had a long session of track grading from Len Silver. Perhaps he knew what he was doing, he certainly has enough experience, though it wasn't obvious, and many of the riders were out looking worried. We were also keeping an eye on the sky but the dark clouds that there were didn't seem to be heading our way.
When we finally resumed after a long delay, Tully again rode brilliantly to lead heat 9. It was stopped when Neath fell - what a night he was having - but Andrew did it again in the rerun.
Jordan Frampton finally got going to lead heat 11 from Wolbert and Wethers, but this time Bowen crashed on the problem bend. The Rockets would have been cursing because we took a 5-1 in the rerun with Frampton nowhere, with Kevin doing the fastest time of the night.
16 up, 28 ahead on aggregate, 5 heats to go - all over. So what would we finally score?
In heat 11 we saw the best ride so far from Tobias Busch. Off gate 3, he hit the grippy outside of turn 2 and surged ahead of Sundstrom no less. Fast and steady, it looked like he might get a notable win till the Swede cut past on the inside on the third lap.
Meantime Ryan Fisher was getting into some trouble in third spot, but he held on to ensure a shared race - but Tobias had made another point about what a good signing we seem to have made!
Wolbert looked terrific again in winning heat 12 from Hughes, and this time we had a good ride from Max who headed Chris Neath for all four laps - a 4-2 to Germany!
Next to put on a show was Ryan Fisher, with an absolutely amazing burst round the outside of the first corner to come from nowhere and race down the back straight yards ahead. Nobody saw him after that. Andrew took third behind Sundstrom.
Kalle picked up yet another win in heat 14, and up till this point we had only conceded one race advantage - the dirt deflector race! We did lose another one in the final race, as Kevin missed the gate and Sundstrom won from Kalle.
That was it - an amazing show in which we never lifted our foot off the gas. One of our smallest travelling supports for this awkward fixture saw what was one of our best-ever displays.
© Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway 2024
Bathgate Road
Armadale
EH48 2PD
