Starting gate view of heat 9 Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

BACK ON SONG

NEWS Friday 21st June 2013, 11:23pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs turned in a great performance tonight against a rather disappointing Workington team, winning 61-34 which was the biggest home victory of the season.

We have had a bigger one away but we won’t go into that!

With home defeats in the last two weeks, Jozsef Tabaka missing and the visitors high in the league table, we expected a tough match. However it didn’t turn out that way – starting with two 5-1s, Monarchs were in control right away, and only an unexpected 1-8 in heat 7 briefly threatened to disrupt the way the match was going.

Rusty Harrison kept Comets’ heads above water early on, winning heat 3 and then taking 6 in his TR ride.

Richard Lawson had one of his better Armadale meetings but otherwise only the persistent Ashley Morris came up to scratch. For some reason both Kyle Howarth and Rene Bach were well below par, but of course we expect a different story tomorrow.

Craig Cook scored another paid maximum, finishing behind Derek Sneddon in heat 1 in a rather untidy team ride, and pulling off a forceful pass on Lawson in the last heat.

Also on 14 points (plus three bonus) was Max Fricke, who just gets a little bit better each week. His progress is very exciting to watch.

Claus Vissing was also a notable performer tonight after struggling in the last two weeks. Three wins, particularly important ones in heats 5 and 9 when the match was not out of Workington’s reach, marked probably the Dane’s most pleasing match of the season.

Derek Sneddon was unbeaten in his first three rides, and Theo Pijper was brilliant most of the night, but crashed in heat 7 trying to squeeze inside Ashley Morris.

Not wanting to be left out of an excellent display, our reserve guest James Sarjeant scored paid 5 and looks easily good enough for a Premier berth.

We’re off to Workington tomorrow having achieved our main goal of the weekend, but keen to improve our recent record at Derwent Park (not forgetting that we scored 44 on our last visit).