Last Gasp Victory

REPORT Saturday 28th May 2016, 1:39am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was certainly a night to remember at Armadale as the Border Roofing Monarchs pulled off what most people felt was a surprise 5-1 in the final race to grab a 46-44 win over Newcastle.

It’s true that we led all the way from heat 3 to heat 14, then lost our lead to a 1-5 in that race before grabbing it back again. But it felt like a potential home defeat for most of the night as the home men struggled to find form, while the Diamonds performed remarkably well in spite of the absence of Steve Worrall.

Fans of both teams were probably amazed watching heat 15, as Kevin Wolbert rocketed round the outside and Sam Masters slotted in to defend second spot from the hard pressing Robert Lambert. Lambert and Victor Palovaara were unbeaten prior to this race other than Lambert’s engine failure in heat one.

Theo Pijper stood in for Worrall, and Theo had suffered the night before with a couple of crashes (which were not his fault) at Sheffield. We’d be bending the truth if we didn’t admit that either with Worrall in place, or with rider replacement, Newcastle would have walked off with at least three if not four points.

Everyone expected Robert Lambert to do well, and he was brilliant after that heat one stoppage. But there were also superb displays from Victor Palovaara (a paid maximum till the last heat) and Lewis Rose who also scored double figures, resoundingly breaking his Armadale duck.

It was not a good performance by the Monarchs and the only excuse that can be offered is that Sam Masters was using an untried engine, after forking out extra cash to ensure that his usual Armadale engine, away to be tuned, would be available in time. It didn’t arrive. Sam never looked comfortable but battled with great courage, though he was still fuming at the end about what had happened.

Kevin Wolbert won four races and deservedly picked up the Calum Cairney Monarch of the Match award, and Dan Bewley swept to his first race win in heat 4 to great acclaim.

Ryan Fisher battled as always but Erik Riss, Max Clegg and Jye Etheridge were not at their best, and it added up to a poorish display all round. Certainly food for thought in the home camp.

Even though Newcastle had the first two race winners, we went 6 points ahead in heat 4 through Bewley and Fisher. But Lambert and Palovaara (one of the best pairings we’ve seen at Armadale?) then comfortably took 5 points against Wolbert.

Our normal powerhouse pair of Masters and Riss could only manage 4-2s in their next two heats together, so when Lambert and Palovaara slammed in their next 5-1 against Ryan Fisher in heat 11 we were just two points ahead. Looking down the remaining heats, it looked like we were in trouble.

Lambert won heat 13 and we lost the predicted 5-1 in heat 14, bringing us to the remarkable conclusion. We might not have ridden well, but we fought to the end and got the reward for that.

The most exciting heats on a nail-biting night were wins from the back by Wolbert and Fisher (over Kus) and Masters over Lindgren, plus a good battle between Bewley and Phillips in heat 8.

Full Result Details