Somerset Rebels v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Wednesday 3rd June 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was a night we won't forget in a hurry and not all for the right reasons.

Going into the match at Somerset without Thomas Jonasson was not a hopeful prospect even though Emil Kramer was a late arrival for the home team. The buildup to the match which started at 8.15 is covered in the News Centre.

As it turned out we had our two most effective riders in our opening pair, and they started with a 5-1 in a heat in which Sedgmen replaced late arrival Kramer. Walker was chasing without much hope when he crashed on lap 3, and he was ruled out of the rest of the meeting.

Aaron Summers kept up the good work by winning heat 2, and we also managed to share heat 3 by keeping Jay Herne at the back. Rajkowski kept Gathercole occupied with a battling ride.

In heat 4 our Bates/Stoddart pair was swamped as expected, and young Bates blew his motor which effectively put him out of the meeting.

Scores were level but we went ahead again in a torrid heat 5 in which Fisher flew to the front with a bold outside move, and stayed there until Gathercole crashed heavily into the fence on the last lap. It looked bad but Gathercole walked away. We were awarded a 5-1.

This was levelled up in the next one and Rebels went ahead in heat 7 when Andrew Tully split Johnston and Brown with Rajkowski a disappointing fourth.

However we still were not finished and took a 5-1 from heat 8, Aaron holding out Sedgmen behind race winner Wethers.

This was a good effort but we had to go with just Aaron in heat 9, and this time he trailed behind Gathercole and Herne. A lot of Aussies in this meeting!

Sedgment was starting to impress and he resisted Andrew?s efforts in heat 10 to back Kramer to a 5-1. Tully pulled out feeling his engine was dodgy.

Our opening pair lost out at last to Johnston in a shared heat 11, Fisher leading at one point but the home star powering past. Although heat 12 looked like a chance for us, we lost it 4-2. Aaron was proving a bit inconsistent.

We were 8 down now and looking at a possible TR shortly. Fisher was on his own in heat 13 and came down at the first corner. He was allowed back in and took a good second in the rerun.

That meant 10 down and we tried the Raj on a TR in heat 14, in which Gathercole started 15 metres back after exceeding the 2-minute allowance. Unfortunately we got nothing out of the TR and lost both a 4-2 and the match from a race which had looked a decent chance for us. Brown gated and we could not peg him back.

The final heat was the best of the night with all four dicing, Matthew winning from the back from Kramer and Fisher third.

Full Result Details