Former team mates Cook and Pijper do battle Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

GOOD START TO THE 2014 SEASON

NEWS Friday 28th March 2014, 11:57pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs turned in a more than satisfactory opening night performance to win the Air Fence Challenge 1st leg against Glasgow by 52-38, having been a mere two points up at heat 11.

It was certainly a tight match in the early stages with both teams looking a bit rusty. Monarchs then started to pull away and were six points clear after 9 heats, only for successive engine failures by Aaron Fox and Justin Sedgmen to gift points to the visitors and close the scores up again.

Over the closing stages, Monarchs moved up a gear with two 5-1s and two 4-2s.

Star man as ever was Craig Cook on a paid maximum 14, though he made things tough for himself in heat 6 when he trailed Rusty Harrison by a long way after a mistake on the first lap. He didn’t panic though, made up ground and grabbed the win on the line.

He also had to pass Ricky Wells in the final race and did so to finish unbeaten.

Sam Masters and Steve Worrall won two heats each, and Justin Sedgmen was also impressive – he would have scored more but for that engine failure, which also caused him to baulk Masters.

These two Aussies did manage to record one impressive 5-1 in heat 7 against visiting captain Theo Pijper.

Steve Worrall was in a 5-1 also, with Max in heat 12, and it was our Englishman who set up the opportunity by moving Theo Pijper across the bend and opening a gap.

The Fricke-Sneddon pair was solid enough, and Derek finished with two wins.

Aaron Fox didn’t score and looked a bit off the pace early on, but he was very unlucky in heat 10 when holding third and pressing, only to lose his exhaust.

Glasgow will certainly see improvement on last year’s disastrous displays, though both Theo Pijper and Rusty Harrison faded after strong starts. Mark Lemon had an unexpected fall when on a paid win in heat 5, a heat which would have put Tigers ahead.

Danish reserves Anders Thomsen and Kasper Lykke Nielsen (using all his names this year) both impressed with their tenacity, though Berge like Fox will take time to adjust to UK Speedway.

With a big crowd in the stadium and a good atmosphere, it was a pleasing start to the new campaign (especially when so many meetings down south have been rained off). Monarchs head for Ashfield at 3pm on Sunday for the second leg.