Edinburgh Monarchs v Berwick Bandits

REPORT Friday 11th May 2007, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Berwick provided modest opposition as the Scotwaste Monarchs piled up 60 points for the second week in succession.

Once again it was a solid 7-man show with everyone scoring good points. The two youngsters who started the season at reserve, Andrew Tully and Derek Sneddon, were far from overawed and were amongst our best performers.

Derek was chosen as Hermiston Monarch of the match for his excellent 9-point display, while Andrew overcame poor starts with aplomb to finish on 8+2. Remarkable.

Matthew Wethers top scored in his first match down at reserve and might have had a maximum but for a mistake in heat 4.

Ronnie Correy started the match by winning in the fastest time of the season, just 0.1 outside the track record.

Matthew was soon ahead in heat 2, with Daniele making light of his foot injury and passing both Bandits' reserves during the heat.

Stan Burza fell on the first corner in heat 3 as William again looked fast and confident to win from Rempala.

Matthew should have won heat 4 but he drifted on the pits bend, lost control and swung back into Henrik Moller's path as Bergstrom took advantage to win.

William and Henrik put us back on track with an easy 5-1 over Makovsky, then we had quite a surprise in heat 6.

First of all Benji Compton took one of his regular falls, just missing Derek Sneddon as he lost it on the top bend. Then in the rerun Ronnie Correy hit the deck on the first bend!

So we were down to two starters, and although Bergstrom made the start, Derek squeezed through boldly leaving the second bend for an excellent win.

Bandits then put Burza on a TR, and he was soon ahead in heat 7. Andrew passed Jacek Rempala but Daniele was tailed off for what was to prove our only last place other than Ronnie's fall.

The 2-7 cut the gap to 26-18, but that was the end of Bandits' heat advantages.

Against Bandits' two newly-introduced riders, Derek and Matthew picked up a comfortable heat 8 5-1.

William and Henrik repeated that against Bergstrom and now we were 16 points to the good.

Burza took another win in heat 10 with Ronnie getting into difficulties on the first lap until he settled down to share the race with Derek.

Berwick played their last tactical card with Bergstrom as a tax sub in heat 11 against what might have looked a vulnerable pair of Tully and Tessari. It didn't prove to be though, because Andrew took advantage of Makovsky's first bend locker to go ahead, and Daniele held off Bergstrom to keep him pointless.

Even Burza had no answer to Lawson and Wethers in heat 12 as we continued to pile up the points, and not only did Ronnie get back in the groove, but Andrew joined him with an outside sweep on the first bend to pass Bergstrom!

Not bad for Andrew's first taste of heat 13.

Rempala made the start to win heat 14 easily, with Henrik and Daniele not quick enough to put him under pressure.

It was Matthew and William lining up in the final heat against Berwick's Poles. Once again Rempala was away well but Matthew hit the inside of the second bend to go to the front. William's maximum was on the line but he couldn't quite peg back Rempala.

A routine match maybe but another job well done by the Scotwaste Monarchs.

Full Result Details