Job Done!

REPORT Saturday 16th September 2017, 10:03pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

If you are going to do a job do it well is what I was always told and boy did the Parsons Peebles Monarchs do the job well romping to a 54-38 victory and 4 league points away at Workington on Saturday night.

This result means that regardless of what happens elsewhere this weekend the Monarchs are heading to the playoffs and in actual fact will occupy 3rd place come the cut off point on Monday evening.

The basis of the victory was strength at the top end with Ricky Wells and Erik Riss leading the way both romping to maximums and with Sam Masters also looking back to something near his best the Monarchs remarkably won 13 of the 15 races.

Wells in particular was in immaculate form with most of his work done from the gate and in the one race where he did not make the best jump he made short work of Ty Proctor cutting under the Aussie entering bend 3.

Amazingly Wells reckons this is his first ever away maximum and was delighted with his and the teams efforts after the match saying “It’s a great result and it was nice to do it at one of my old tracks. I know the set ups and I was trapping tonight, my suit is clean and I’m really happy. Everything felt good it was one of those nights where I had to make minimum changes. As a team it’s a great result we knew we would come here and get some kind of result but I’m happy to get the 4 league points and we did the business and now we wait and see who picks us in the playoffs.”

If Wells was the catalyst leading from the front then he was expertly backed up by Erik Riss. Riss showing his love for the wide open spaces of Derwent Park with some exciting fast racing. The young German was involved in the race of the night in heat 13 as he stalked Ty Proctor for 2 laps going wider and wider before swooping round the outside of the 3rd and 4th bend on lap 3 to romp to victory.

There was solid back up throughout with captain Sam Masters taking two heat wins, Mark Riss and Max Clegg one apiece and Mitchell Davey scoring in all his rides. Monarchs Aussie Josh Pickering found the going a little tough to start with but once he made changes to his machine his night improved finishing with scoring rides in his last 2 also.

For the home men well they must be feeling that the end of the season cannot come soon enough. There cause was not helped by the absence of number one Craig Cook with his rider replacement rides only accumulating 3 points a score that Cook would probably have matched in one race let alone 5.

It would seem that all is not right in the Comets camp this being encapsulated by young Englishman James Sarjeant who off the back of an excellent 12 point score on Friday night at Armadale could only muster 1 point. He also suffered the ignominy of 2 tapes exclusions, a further warning for jumping the start and a crazy exclusion for removing his helmet during a race (although it has to be said he was at the back coasting round at the time). This exclusion led to some cat calls and booing form the home fans which Sarjeant then reacted to gesturing to them and throwing his race jacket to the ground.

You can only beat what is put in front of you though and the Monarchs did this handsomely tonight and this will act as a great confidence boost as the season starts again in the playoffs and a bid for a 5th league title in 10 years goes on.

Full Result Details