Title Partner
With Josh Auty now in their side full time, Redcar are a formidable outfit and a score of 41 represented a reasonable if not brilliant performance.
Matthew was fit to reclaim his position from potential guest Lee Complin, but Henrik Moller was absent.
There was rain around the South Tees Motor Park and at one point (about heat 10-11) the match seemed in danger of abandonment, but all was well in the end.
We shared heat 1, and should no doubt have done the same in heat 2, but Jack Roberts touched the tapes. He just failed to catch Compton off his 15-metre handicap.
When we visited in the Premier Trophy, the Grieves/Kerr pairing took us to the cleaners. They were off with a 5-1 in heat 3 this time.
Just when we feared that things were going wrong, we put our two tough guys Sneddon and Wethers together in heat 4. In spite of a poorish start, Derek forced his way through on the first bend with Matthew inside him, and they withstood Tresarrieu?s challenges until the Frenchman fell leg-trailing out wide on the last lap.
Grieves and Kerr then recorded an even easier 5-1 with Theo Pijper well at the rear, and although we should have shared heat 6, Jack Roberts (while lying second) went too fast into the bottom bend and came off.
Correy gated in heat 7 but Andrew fell on the first bend, colliding with the fence. After some treatment he was OK. In the rerun Ronnie missed the start and lost a 5-1 to Auty and Tresarrieu.
It seemed certain Auty would come into heat 8, but when it didn?t happen we took advantage with Derek on a TR and Matthew backing up to score an 8-1.
The score was then a flattering 28-23 and over the closing stages we fought hard to keep the margin down.
Matthew became the first Monarch to beat Kerr, and after a shared heat 10 we had an exciting first couple of laps in heat 11. Derek and Theo went ahead, Auty galloped round the outside to go to the front. Tresarrieu was also trying a wide sweep and got ahead of Theo, but the Frenchman then went down again.
Theo laid down well, and took advantage of the second chance to lead all the way in the rerun.
At last Ronnie made a start and he gave Grieves no chance to win heat 12. 5 down with 3 heats left.
Theo split Havelock and Tresarrieu in heat 13, but we lost a 5-1 to Kerr and Auty in heat 14. Matthew had had two successive lasts and was probably tiring.
Lining up for the last heat, Theo dived forward into the tapes. After some discussion John Campbell withdrew Theo rather than putting him off 15 metres, to keep Ronnie on the favourable gate 3.
It worked, Ronnie gated, moved wide on the pits band to block Grieves, came down lower to discourage Havvy and clinched a good race win.
That was 5 race wins, an acceptable return. Now for the home match.
The team head off to Redcar on Thursday - a track where we have yet to take a point. Will this statistic change? Can the Monarchs record back-to-back wins on the road?
We have been to Redcar three times on official business and our results there have produced a one point defeat on our first visit to the track in April last year in the Premier Trophy, an 18 point defeat in the league last June and, in the Premier Trophy match this year, a nine point defeat.
Like other sides The Bears have their strengths and weaknesses. At the ‘sharp’ end of the team they are led by former World Champion, Gary Havelock, and a rider in superb form this season, James Grieves. In the ’boilerhouse’ they have the very inconsistent, Chris Kerr who is prone to more falls than he should be, Mathieu Tressarieu who, on his day, is near unbeatable round the South Tees Motor Park and Arlo Bugeja who has yet to score well at home.
The big problem though for them has been at reserve where they have been consistently weak all season. In most of their matches their numbers 6 and 7 have struggled to produce the back-up needed to turn them into one of the top sides. This has cost them dearly at home as well as away.
Unfortunately for us that problem seems to be a thing of the past with young Josh Auty returning to the Bears’ team full time now that his school exams are finished. As an example of what Auty can mean to the Redcar team you only have to look at their recent home match against King’s Lynn when the youngster scored 11+3 from his seven rides (including a fall) while Arlo Bugeja and Benji Compton managed just 1 point between them!
So how does this affect us? As ever away from home gating is paramount – not, perhaps, always our strong point. Havelock and Grieves will be hard men to beat and anything taken from them will make life so much easier. If Tressarieu and Kerr are as inconsistent as ever we may well match them in their positions in the team while Bugeja and Compton should be beatable. It is the potential of Auty which is the greatest threat to our chances. If he can be contained then we may just sniff the sweet smell of success.
The Monarchs are still waiting to see if Matthew Wethers will be fit to take his place in the side but, if not, we have Lee Complin ready to take his place. After his 18+1 return at Newport on Sunday and after top scoring for Stoke at the Isle of Wight on Tuesday he could be a match winner.
On balance this looks like another hard match with a defeat the likely outcome. If the breaks don’t go our way and we do lose this match we need to keep the score as close as possible to challenge for the bonus point in the return match on Friday.
Thursday 21st June 2007, 11:59am
The Scotwaste Monarchs had three double figure scorers but went down 52-41 at Redcar, and now look forward to the battle for points in the home match.
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