Edinburgh Monarchs v Workington Comets

REPORT Friday 14th April 2006, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Workington earned a tremendous victory at Armadale in spite of the loss of Paul Thorp in heat 1.

At last we saw blue sky and sunshine, and there was a good crowd including a healthy travelling support from Workington. Unfortunately heat 1 proved to be something of a problem race.

Tomasz Piszcz seemed to be keen to get from gate 4 to the inside and came down along with Theo Pijper at the first attempt. The next one was even worse - Paul Thorp, moving outwards, met his Polish partner at the entry to the turn and shot forward, ramming the fence head on and flying onto the greyhound track.

It didn't prove to be too serious, something of a miracle, though Thorpy was ruled out for the night.

Monarchs took a 4-2 in the rerun. Aidan Collins won heat 2, with Derbyshire in second for a bit until first Stoddart then Sneddon forced past.

Heat 3 was a showcase for two of next week's Under-21 Finalists as James Wright led the way with William Lawson chasing furiously and just failing to come through.

Heat 4 was ominous with Stead winning comfortably from Harrison, who looked a little sluggish.

Lawson made a good start in heat 5 but Piszcz wobbled on the first turn right in front of him. Lawson dropped back but later passed Collins; however with Matthew trailing, Comets had drawn level.

Heat 6 was a costly one. Moller fell on the outside of the first corner, and while "all four" might have been called, the ref ruled that Henrik came down too easily. He was out, and though Pijper gated ahead in the rerun, Stead burst past him entering the pits corner. Worse still, later in the heat Theo lifted and crashed awkwardly against the back straight fence, gifting Derbyshire a paid win.

We went 7 down to a Wright / Hawkins 4-2 in heat 7 and when Piszcz headed Pijper and Sneddon in heat 8, it was not looking good for us.

We did fight back though. William's excellent form continued with a win over Garry Stead (who could well have been ruled out after bringing William down in the first running.). In fact Matthew almost squeezed through off the second bend also but he ran out of room. Back to 5 down.

Henrik made a great gate in heat 10 with Theo behind him, only for Hawkins to crash and cause a stoppage. Sure enough James Wright made the gate in the rerun, but remarkably Moller hit the outside of the pits corner to pass him for a great win - first glimpse for the home fans of what he is capable of.

That was three down now, and when Derek nipped out of the start in heat 11 with Rusty sitting behind and Piszcz some way back, we had taken the lead!

Could the Scotwaste Monarchs build on this? Heat 12 had to be a target. Derek came into the heat and led from Ritchie Hawkins with Matthew third - but a terrific ride from Hawkins saw him press and pass Derek for a vital win.

Derbyshire was in heat 13 but Stead made sure his team didn't lose ground by winning comfortably.

With Sean Stoddart in heat 14 for his third ride, everything depended on Lawson - and he came up with the goods by beating Wright to preserve the one-point lead.

So for the second match running Harrison and Lawson were out in heat 15 defending a one-point lead. This time they couldn't do it; Rusty fell on the first corner as the Comets made the start.

William thrillingly cut past Wright and for a second it seemed he might pick off Stead too, but the experienced Comets man wasn't going to give way. They did it without Thorp and no-one could claim Comets didn't deserve their win.

HALMOND ENGINEERING MONARCH OF THE MATCH: William Lawson.

Full Result Details