Title Partner
REPORT Friday 10th August 2007, 10:00pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
A spirited performance by a desperately unlucky Monarchs team was not quite enough to take the points against Newcastle.
Derek Sneddon was missing after his heavy fall at Sheffield, and Daniele Tessari has problems after his heat 13 fall, but the real disaster came in heat 6.
It started well with George Stancl and Andrew Tully making the start, Stancl on board Wethers? bike, but George lifted leaving the second bend and took himself and Andrew into the fence.
It took a long time to clear the debris of men and machines, and that was the end of a disastrous night for George Stancl. He had already blown two motors, one in the pits and one when leading heat 1. No wonder he asked ?Why me??
It seemed that Andrew Tully would be ruled out also, but mercifully he was able to carry on. In fact he performed brilliantly.
Going back to the start, we were on a 4-2 in heat 1 until Stancl ground to a halt. Jonas Raun had dropped out right at the start, Christian Henry took the gifted win, and Kalle Katajisto fell on the last bend before pushing home for second as Stancl pushed for a lap and a point.
Sean Stoddart fell in heat 2, which Matthew Wethers won easily. Daniele Tessari was tentative and lost out to Sam Dore for second.
No problem for guest Jason Lyons in heat 3, stopped near the end when Katajisto fell again.
Stoddart showed his improvement by passing Wethers to win a shared heat 4, and Lyons outgated Henry but had to work hard to win heat 5.
Then came heat 6. A horrible moment, and eventually a 2-4 with Wilkinson winning from Tully. Dore was allowed in the rerun even though he was clearly not under power at the stoppage. The scores were now level and we were down to 5 men plus our no. 8.
Henry took the rider replacement and won heat 7 even though Wethers was right on his tail. Diamonds now led.
However Monarchs weren?t finished and we had Matthew and Andrew battling to a heat 8 5-1 over Stoddart and Raun, who fell.
Lyons was the rock we were relying on, and his heat 9 win was backed by a point from the back for Kalle. 4 up, could we keep it going?
Wilkinson fell and dislodged the boards in heat 10, but the race was allowed to continue. We were giving Gary Beaton a run but he misjudged the situation and came off the track when there was a point to be had. Ross Brady led but Andrew Tully made up a huge amount of ground to pass him for a great win. A 3-2 gave us a 5-point lead.
Heat 11 was a 2-4, Mathew just losing out to Henry, and Daniele riding much harder to finish right on Raun?s back wheel.
Lyons won heat 12, with Tully taking third ahead of Brady, and that restored our 5-point lead with three heats left.
Tessari took the Stancl place in heat 13, and he made a determined start, pushing his way into second although baulking Wethers on the first turn. On the pits bend, though, the Italian fell, and he was clearly struggling to get off the tack.
Referee Holt again let it run, and Wethers did well to come under Wilkinson to take second.
Heat 14 was where we ran out of steam. Brady and Stoddart made the start and there was nothing Tully and Katajisto could do about it. That meant our lead had gone and we went into heat 15 a point down.
Newcastle won the toss, and took 2 and 4. Henry just beat Lyons to the first turn and made no mistake to clinch the win, with Matthew falling as he tried to catch Wilkinson.
Diamonds took their chance, but Edinburgh?s luck has been truly sickening over the past few days. With so many knocks and machine problems, it may be a while before things turn.
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Bathgate Road
Armadale
EH48 2PD
