Poole progress comfortably

For the Monarchs' senior team it was a disappointing night at Armadale, firstly because of the horrible weather which eventually led to an abandonment, and secondly because the home team were never at any stage able to make inroads into Poole's first leg advantage. Eventual aggregate was 66-96.

Dan Thompson won two heats in his first home match at number five, and he said "We're trying to stay positive but we have to be realistic, what we did on Wednesday wasn't good enough. Our home track advantage today was very minimal in the conditions with just one line and you had to be a bit careful. I ran a bad last in my first ride but I quite enjoyed it after that, the track came good and there was a nice little dirt line.

"I think we've done better this year than people thought but meeting Poole in the semi was tough. I've really enjoyed this year it's such a fun little track and everyone's been so kind to me."

Great efforts had gone in to ensuring that the track was in rideable condition, and that part of the operation was successful. But Poole were much too good a side to allow Monarchs a glimpse of the possibility of qualifying, right from the moment that Richard Lawson came decisively off gate four to dominate the opening race.

Worse was to follow in heat two when the visiting reserves, such a powerful pair, left the two young Aussies of the home side a substantial distance behind.

Unfortunately the exciting Slater Lightcap was injured in a tumble in his second ride while chasing Kye Thomson and had to pull out if the meeting, but that was hardly a handicap for the Pirates who simply handed his heats to Kyle Newman who is very much a track specialist.

Monarchs levelled the scores with a 5-1 in heat 3, won by Justin Sedgmen whose gating was electric all night. Jordy Loftus then led heat 4 most of the way but he was pipped on the run to the line by Newman, so strong on the inside line.

Lawson won heat 5 as Poole went 4 ahead, then Kye Thomson won a rerun heat 6 after the Lightcap tumble. Dan Thompson made amends for a last place in his opening ride by romping away with heat 7, the race being stopped after Mitch Cluff had fallen twice.

Newman won again in heat 8 and even though it was Sedgmen in front in heat 9, the obvious fact that Poole were going to qualify became a mathematical certainty.

Monarchs took the next two heat winners and cut the gap to 2 points but when Kerr and Newman passed Sedgmen in heat 12 to put their team 6 ahead, it was looking extremely likely that Monarchs unbeaten home record for the season was going to be broken also.

Heat 13 was started but only got to the first bend. It was clear that Lawson was determined not to let Thomson and Thompson get the better of him, and the Monarchs pair came down in the mud. The rain was getting heavier and it was no great shock to anyone when the fixture was called off with just 12 heats completed.