Berwick Bandits v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Saturday 15th March 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

There?s a bit of pressure when you are expected to win a match, but Monarchs handled it well to take a 48-42 win at Shielfield.

Bandits? recent signing Manu Hauzinger was said to have broken his collar bone in practise, but this has presumably not been accepted as Bandits were not allowed the r/r facility which Glasgow have for Ross Brady in similar circumstances.

They brought in Conference rider Greg Blair, who in the event gave an interesting performance.

Indeed for the first ten heats it was a very close match with Bandits holding their own, led by the dominant Rymel and Makovsky.

Bandits had the first three heat winners, and another stoppage by Thomas H Jonasson gave Bandits a 2-point lead as well as signalling that the Swede hadn?t sorted his mechanical worries.

Young Blair caused a bit of a stir by leading all the way to the last bend in heat 4, before Andrew Tully just pipped him over the line. An engine failure for Wethers kept Bandits ahead.

Again no-one could beat Makovsky and Rymel in heats 5 and 6, but we did get a gift when the Italina Franchetti stopped in third place in heat 6.

Finally we levelled the scores in heat 7 through a Lawson/Jonasson 4-2, split by the handy Magosi.

Derek won heat 8 but Andrew, after two good rides, couldn?t get out of fourth spot in spite of trying very hard.

Matthew came out on a Sneddon machine in heat 9, and promptly sped away from Makovsky in the equal fastest time so far.

Thomas led heat 10 but came under pressure from Rymel, who burst through just as the Swede?s machine was slowing once again.

So it was 30-30 at that point, and we still had a lot to do.

Step forward Sneddon and Fisher again. Ryan was content to sit behind Derek, keeping Magosi at bay. He didn?t have to do it for the full four laps because Greg Blair fell on the pits bend and the heat was awarded.

We then had 2-minute exclusions in the next three heats, the first two intentional to give Magosi some extra time coming in to the heat. However it didn?t pay off.

In heat 12 Tully passed the Hungarian to team up with Jonasson behind Makovsky, and in heat 13 Magosi was again at the back as Wethers took an excellent win with Fisher third.

Matthew rode a thrilling second bend here to squeeze past the home no. 1.

So we were now 6 up and needed just to share heat 14, to avoid giving the top two Bandits a chance to salvage something in heat 15. This time Magosi (who must have been tiring) failed to beat the 2 minutes, Lawson won the heat and Tully took third.

So the last heat was irrelevant but Wethers again rode well to split the Czechs.

In the end our win was well deserved. Berwick will be a decent side if they can plug the no. 5 position, though Hauzinger may not prove to be the answer.

Full Result Details