NO POINTS AT NEWCASTLE

We were still in with a chance of a point going into the last heat at Newcastle, but in all honesty we didn't really deserve anything from this match.

Newcastle have major injury problems at the moment, but they sorted these in one fell swoop by declaring the struggling Jason King unfit, bringing in guests Jason Lyons (full maximum), Aaron Summers (unbeaten until heat 15) and using rider replacement (7 points) for King.

Of course it was up to us to ride well enough to break up this cosy arrangement, and we simply didn't. A mere two heat winners tells its own tale.

We started dismally, made up some ground with the help of 5 additional TR points, then lost ground again.

We were simply woeful from the gate. Either the home boys were supercharged, or the Monarchs were dragging lead weights behind their back wheels. The majority of the passing was done by Monarchs but it just wasn't enough.

We took an 8-1 from heat 7 to get within 5 points, and after losing a couple of maximum advantages we scored a 5-1 ourselves in heat 11 as both Matthew Wethers and Kevin Wolbert passed Nedermark.

Wolbert looked very fast but he was constantly having to come from the rear of the field.

Even he could not hold a candle to Jason Lyons, who was struggling earlier in the season but seems to be right back to his best now.

Aaron Summers was also impressive and of course Derek Sneddon as ever showed his battling qualities allied to good gating.

Kyle Howarth was a success again for us, but four points was a poor return for Cook, Wethers and Katajisto who have all gone well here in the past.