All Three points gained

The Stellar Monarchs made a powerful start to tonight's Championship match against Plymouth and had a lead of 18 points by heat 10. Although the Gladiators came back at them, and the spearhead of Klindt and Nicholls took three 5-1's from the last five heats, Monarchs kept the rest of the visiting team quiet and won 51-39 on the night, and 95-85 for the aggregate bonus.

Much attention will have been focussed on Scott Nicholls, returning to the fray after injury at age 47, and it did take him a couple of heats to get back in the groove. However he finished his final three rides second behind his Danish partner, even though home captain Paco Castagna gave Nicholls a tremendous tussle in heat 15.

In-form captain Castagna was also the only rider to defeat Klindt, catching the fast-gating Plymouth man on his trademark inside line off turn four and going on to take three points in heat 6. It was a continuation of Paco's form at Poole in midweek, where he top-scored, and it's exactly what Monarchs need from him in the weeks to come.

The Monarchs' captain said "Who would have thought that I wouldn't be happy with 13 points? I've been pushing hard for the last couple of weeks to get something going here – found a great setup and I was making starts and felt very comfortable. I was glad to play my part for the team which I hadn't been doing. A great confidence booster and a fantastic win."

In that classic heat 15 Castagna actually passed Nicholls twice, but made a slight error and lifted down the back straight allowing Scott to retake second spot.

The Armadale squad started with 5-1s in heats 1, 3 and 5 plus 4-2s in heats 2 and 6 to put them 16 points to the good as early as heat 6. The Palovaara-Castagna and Sedgmen-Thomson pairings were working really well, justifying the decision to swap Paco and Kye around in the team.

Michael Palm Toft isn't going quite as well as he can yet, and he admitted as much but he says "It will come!" Jonatan Grahn won heat 2 and finished with an excellent paid win in heat 14 in which he brilliantly passed Joe Thompson on the outside of the fourth corner.

And Jordy Loftus continues with his progress, impressive for such an inexperienced rider. Alfie Bowtell in heat 4 was his best scalp to date but Jordy was out in the second half for extra practice nevertheless.

For the Gladiators Nicolai Klindt was very fast and near perfect, and Scott Nicholls was a joy to watch once he got going. Shrewd team manager Garry May will have expected to get a few more points from former Monarchs Lasse Fredriksen and Jacob Hook, neither quite at their best, and also from Alfie Bowtell at reserve where he should be effective. Joe Thompson was their only race winner other than Klindt.

Monarchs will need to work out some way of avoiding the late reverses in heats 13 and 15 (plus 11 tonight also!) but they will not meet as powerful a pair as Klindt and Nicholls every week.

The whole evening was much enhanced by the enthusiastic support for the Gladiators by their travelling support, notably the Bar Bandits in their yellow shirts. Win or lose they were there to enjoy themselves and their presence was appreciated by the home fans. Speedway needs more Bar Bandits!