MEETING ABANDONED AFTER CRASHES

NEWS Thursday 23rd July 2015, 10:11pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Tonight's match at Redcar was abandoned with the score standing at 37-35 in the first leg of the Knockout Cup tie, following two crashes which required hospital trips.

The unfortunate riders were Jan Graversen and Lasse Bjerre who appear to have shoulder and leg injuries respectively, with Bjerre's perhaps the more serious. We wish them well.

The result stands of course so we have two points to make up in the second leg at Armadale on Saturday 1st August.

One of the features of the night was again unbalanced starting gates which generally saw the riders off gates 2 and 4 away best, though not everyone took advantage of that.

The first three races were indeed 5-1s to the riders off the outside gates, but full marks to our reserve duo for making the most of them in heat 2. Rob Branford led all the way but Max Clegg had to battle round the outside of Morley in an excellent duel.

Adam Roynon fell in heat 4 and we took a 4-2 in the rerun, but lost heat 5 by the same score even though we were off the better gates. It was looking like a frustrating night for Justin Sedgmen at this stage, pointless and slowing up his partner in this one, but he later turned his night around.

Cook beat Bjerre in heat 6 with Max Clegg battling hard before losing out to Graversen, then we had a German 5-1 to celebrate as we levelled the scores (off the good gates).

Sedgmen then switched bikes and flew to a big win in heat 8, with Rob Branford tussling with the Bears before losing out.

Unexpectedly Craig Cook then lost out to the Kus-Andersen pair, a very good ride by Bears' recently-acquired Dane.

Wolbert and Riss made the start in heat 10 with Bjerre right at the back, but the unlucky Graversen hit Erik's back wheel down the straight and piled into the fence.

The interval was inserted here as Graversen was treated, and when we resumed some time later Bjerre this time made the start in spite of a valant effort by Kevin to peg him back.

Heat 11 was a remarkable display of how much better Sedgmen's second bike was as he chased and caught Robson with a brilliant effort. Richie Worrall also came from the back for a point and we were now two down.

We shared heat 12 behind the flying Kus, a very good point for Clegg in third. Then came the fateful heat 13.

Craig Cook made the best start from gate four, with Bjerre trying hard to force him wide. Craig squeezed ahead though into the straight and meanwhile Worrall had taken advantage of the big gap to come up the inside. As Bjerre tried to turn back the two collided, Bjerre came down and Stuart Robson could not avoid running over him.

With another lengthy delay required, and a ten o' clock curfew, there was no real option but to abandon the match. Richie had been excluded for the incident but it would be very harsh to say it was anything other than a racing incident.

The track seemed in excellent racing condition and there was some good racing until the accidents marred the night.

Full Result Details