Sheffield Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Thursday 2nd April 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We were six up at Sheffield after three heats but more gremlins hampered our efforts, and we gained no match points in the end.

This was frustrating because on the night we rode well enough to deserve something. However there were problems along the way for Ryan Fisher, Aaron Summers, Andrew Tully and Matthew Wethers and these proved too much of a handicap.

Both Fisher and Wethers had engines returned at Owlerton ? after the start of the match! Neverthess Matthew had his installed for his first ride in heat 4, and Fisher?s was operational, if not apparently very quick, for his third ride.

Aaron?s problem was that after an excellent heat 1 he just couldn?t get any power, until heat 11 when things were going a bit better. However he fell, and even though Richard Hall had already pulled out with an engine failure, he was off the track before he realised.

Andrew?s problem was more spectacular ? coming to the tapes in heat 7 his bike burst into flames! He said afterwards that a bare wire had sparked with his oil and ignited. He jumped off in time to avoid injury but missed the heat.

In amongst all this Thomas H Jonasson sailed on pretty impressively, especially in winning heat 10 by passing Ricky Ashworth round the outside. This was excellent stuff from Thomas who was assaulted by Auty after heat 12 for reasons that were not obvious.

5-1s in heats 1 and 3 gave us a six point lead by heat 3. Matthew then spun off in heat 4 to lose second place, and it was depressing to see Ryan emerge for heat 5 on Wethers? bike. More problems! Apparently the engine he won heat 1 easily on, had been ?rattling?.

With Aaron spluttering round at the rear, clearly both our opening pair had problems.

Next disappointment ? heat 6, Matthew leading, ground to a halt going into the third turn. This time, apparently, he felt his front wheel was coming loose and stopped for obvious safety concerns, though it transpired that his wheel was OK.

With Hall beating Jonasson in heat 7 and Tully out of the heat, we had fallen to 4 points down by that stage.

Summers struggled again in heat 8 but Rajkowski rode an excellent heat to stay ahead of Auty for a good win.

Parsons narrowly headed Wethers in heat 9 with Rajkoski this time at the back, then we had that terrific ride from Thomas in heat 10 with Andrew (on his other bike) just failing to overhaul Cooper after a slow start.

Hall packed up early in heat 11, in which Ryan Fisher struggled to head Mills, and Aaron Summers fell trying to turn it into a 5-1. He left the track and it was thus a 3-2 to Edinburgh.

Thomas won heat 12 and withstood that ridiculous attack from Auty. Five down, we really needed something from heat 13. For much of the heat Fisher and Wethers were sharing it with Hall at the rear, but in spite of Matthew?s efforts to cover, Ryan was not quick enough and Hall passed them both.

Now we were out of the point-scoring situation (you need to stay within 6 race points to get a match point). Andrew did an excellent job to squeeze ahead and win heat 14, but Michal had faded after his first three rides and finished at the back.

We needed a 5-1 in heat 15 to gain a point, but that never looked likely. Thomas took second behind Hall and our chance had slipped away.

Full Result Details