Title Partner
REPORT Friday 7th July 2006, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
We've had good nights and bad nights at Armadale - but the Rye House match was a disastrous night.
Not just because we lost the match, but also because it was a night punctuated with delays, a night when the weather made good racing almost impossible, and a night when we (probably) lost a rider.
The rider who has put his future in major doubt is Rusty Harrison who didn't take his third or fourth rides and left the stadium before the end of the match.
The problems all stemmed from the weather which again let us down badly. Very heavy showers in late afternoon and just before the meeting were enough to have called off many a meeting, but it was agreed to delay till 8pm then make a start.
Just after the agreed time the racing got under way with a comfortable heat 1 win for guest Bird, with Boxall dropping out.
Danny Betson touched the tapes in heat 2, and went off 15 metres. Monarchs' reserves made the start, but Derek only made it to the second bend before sliding off. It was the start of a tortuous night for him. Sean though showed his mettle in the second rerun to burst past guest Cockle for a good win.
We took a 5-1 in heat 3, Rusty passing Tommy Allen to join Henrik who looked pretty smooth in front. At the end of the heat Rusty gesticulated his displeasure towards the referee.
Neath was an easy winner of heat 4, but in spite of a fall for Cockle, Derek Sneddon had so little control that he eventually surrendered third and pulled off the track..
The highly rated Boxall got going in the next one, just holding off Moller for a 5-1, and Rusty Pulled out to a chorus of boos from the terracing. That could prove to be Rusty's last ride for the club.
Rockets were now a point up, maintained by Chris Neath's win in heat 6. Heat 7 was a big one for us, won comfortably by William, but more importantly well backed up by Sean. Sean passed Allen then started to put pressure on Ross Brady who wilted and gave way.
Matthew won heat 8 but Derek again failed to last the course. Now we had a deputation approaching the referee, and it seems that Chris Neath was directing the referee to make track alterations - which the ref went along with.
40 minutes passed as tractors and graders circled. When we resumed, Sean took Rusty's place for heat 9, and it was shared behind Neath again.
We went 7 ahead in heat 10 through Theo and Henrik over the struggling Brady.
Any thoughts that this could be a winning lead evaporated as we slumped over the next three heats. William was close to Bird and Boxall in heat 11 but they held the outside line and he couldn't get through.
With Rusty not reappearing, we had to run heat 12 with only one rider (Rusty had taken only two rides). For some reason the obvious reserve switch wasn't made, and Derek was our representative.
Things didn't get any better for him. The previously unimpressive Ross Brady had a gift victory while Derek toiled briefly in second before being passed by Cockle.
That was heat 12 at which point had we stopped the result would stand - and we had managed to lose a 7-point lead in 2 races.
Neath easily won heat 13 but Bird had a harder ride, losing control a few times. However our pair rarely looked likely to take advantage.
A heat 14 4-2 made it a last heat decider, but we needed a 5-1 from the last one. After the first bend sort-out Henrik got in front and eyes turned to Theo, who as ever had made a poor start. He got alongside Neath at one point, but couldn't get past - and in any case Bird made a great move round the pits turn and home straight on lap three to squeeze outside Henrik. That gave him a paid 15 maximum, a great effort, and the Rockets had won by 5.
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Bathgate Road
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