Edinburgh Monarchs v Somerset Rebels

REPORT Friday 23rd September 2011, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

This was a dramatic but also rather strange match as Edinburgh fought back from a 12-point deficit to steal a draw.

The Rebels with 3 guests and a rider replacement were not widely fancied, but for much of the match they looked more like the home team than the Monarchs did.

Edinburgh?s gating is often poor but in this match it plumbed the depths ? or maybe the Rebels gated like rockets. Derek Sneddon especially was terrific from the start, and he had 8 points after just 5 heats in spite of being knocked through the fence when Andrew Tully ran into him in heat 3.

James Wright opened with three wins, and the visiting reserves were hugely more effective than the home pair. Matthew Wethers was out as a TR as early as heat 5 but Derek Sneddon beat him, and by heat 8 Monarchs trailed by a depressing 19-31.

Slowly they worked their way back into contention, though foolishly they didn?t use a second TR in heat 9, presumably delaying on the assumption Wright might win again. He didn?t (indeed Wright lost momentum completely over the closing heats) and so Monarchs had lost the opportunity of extra points.

Kevin Wolbert had to produce a superb ride from the back to overcome the tremendously impressive Ashley Birks in heat 10. The deficit was now 8, and might have been cut further in the following race as Tom Perry seemed to be passing Sam Masters.

The struggling visiting no. 1 produced a pretty brutal blocking move to stop this happening, and Alex Davies then pulled off an important win over Andrew Tully to maintain the lead.

There seemed almost no chance for Edinburgh now, but Wolbert and Craig Cook dealt strongly with the Rebels? pair early in heat 13 to take a 5-1.

It seemed that Matthew Wethers needed to win heat 13, but he fell on the first lap trying to pass Davies and Birks. Amazingly, Kyle Howarth who had done nothing to that point jumped out of the start and rode a crafty four laps for a completely unexpected race win, leaving a chance for the home big guns in the final race.

They needed no second bidding; Wolbert and Cook rode four laps side by side to give Monarchs a point. Somerset deserved to win really, but Monarchs did show a great fighting spirit over the second half of the match.

Full Result Details