GREAT FIGHTBACK JUST FAILS

NEWS Friday 13th May 2011, 11:02pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs made a tremendous effort to pull back the 28-point deficit in the second leg of their cup tie with Sheffield, but could only manage a 55-35 victory to go out on aggregate.

It was an incident-strewn meeting with a number of falls, the net effect of which certainly did not assist Monarchs ? their own falls cost points whilst on more than one occasion, Sheffield riders coming to grief resulted in their team mates doing better in the reruns!

This frustrated the home fans who nevertheless were pleased to see their riders perform well after the disappointing showing at Sheffield.

No-one improved more than Kevin Wolbert who was outstanding in winning all five of his heats. He was irresistible even when he missed the start, and completed his maximum by making up many yards in the final race to overhaul Shane Parker going into the pits turn.

There were race wins for all of the other top five who were all on song. Monarchs were outscored at reserve though where Simon Lambert was again the dominant figure, in double figures as in the first leg.

Kyle Howarth's 4+1 was perfectly acceptable but he didn't enjoy the same success as in his two previous meetings, falling when on a 5-1 in heat 8.

Lee Dicken struggled again though he too was on a 5-1 in heat 2 when Birks fell at the end of lap two ? handing a second chance to Lambert who won the rerun.

Monarchs kept the tie alive till heat 14 and at the stage needed 9 points from the last two heats to draw, and 10 to win. Shane Parker and Simon Lambert scored a 5-1 in heat 14 and that was it ? Sheffield were through.

Realistically we left ourselves too much to do after the Owlerton disappointment.