Edinburgh Monarchs v Stoke Potters

REPORT Friday 4th July 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

At two-and-a-half hours this match was far too long, and there was precious little entertaining racing either.

The track was simply not conducive to good speedway as riders lost control, ran into each other and generally struggled. The worst moment came in heat 6 when William Lawson clipped the back wheel of Andrew Moore and fell heavily. He has broken his collar bone so will be out for a few weeks.

With Thomas Jonasson also missing, and Aaron Summers not fit, that left only Sneddon, Wethers, Fisher and Tully at something like full fitness. Andrew wasn't at his best either but the others did enough to steer us to victory.

George Stancl sailed to victory in heat 1 after a fast start, with William Lawson getting close in the latter stages.

Derek Sneddon raced away with heat 2 but Aaron Summers lost a lot of ground at the first corner. He caught Evans who made a few big mistakes but didn't get near Klaus Jakobsen who looked steady on his Armadale debut.

Andrew Tully was a first turn faller in heat 3, won from the back by Ryan Fisher who held steady as the opposition lost control.

Heat 4 was also shared, a win for Wethers from Jakobsen. Summers was struggling at the rear and didn't look fit.

Stancl won from Fisher in heat 5, with Tully passing Jakobsen for the point, and next we had the Lawson disaster. Derek Sneddon led at the first running, then won the heat after the long delay waiting for the second ambulance to take William away.

There is always an air of gloom after an injury but we did at least improve our position in heat 7. This should probably have been stopped after Barker had fallen on a messy first corner, and should definitely have been stopped when Kristiansen then fell later as Barker headed towards him. However the home men Wethers and Summers sailed on and took a 5-1.

We might have expected a similar result from heat 8, won by Derek Sneddon, but Ryan Fisher was adjudged to have brought down Jakobsen as he passed him on the final bend.

Barrie Evans was a surprise leader of heat 9 till he fell on the pits corner. Again we passed up a 5-1 chance in the rerun as Andrew fell on the first turn.

Barker finally got going to win heat 10 impressively and against expectations Stoke were not yet in a position to use a TR.

After heat 11, they were. Sneddon and Wethers carved up George Stancl round the first turn, then did it again after Buzz Burrows had ended his disappointing night with a fall.

Now it was TR time for Barker, against Andrew Tully and Aaron Summers. He took the six points easily but Andrew did at least manage to gain a second place.

The gap was now down to 7, and we had not yet sewn up the points. We were even more concerned after the first corner of heat 13 when Derek Sneddon lost a chain and went straight ahead, spearing Matthew and bringing him down.

After lengthy treatment Matthew did come out for the rerun, and somewhat typically produced the best ride of the night. He put real pressure on race leader Stancl and cut brilliantly past him on lap three for what was at the time an important three points.

In the final two heats we finally gated with conviction and finished with two 5-1s, giving a final margin of 54-39. It hadn't really been that easy and the win came at some cost.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Matthew Wethers

Full Result Details