WHAT A NIGHT IT WAS!

NEWS Friday 9th October 2009, 0:44am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After a night of drama, excitement and controversy the Scotwaste Monarchs qualified for the Premier Playoff final when they beat Newcastle in the second Golden Heat.

The 15-heat match had finished in a 52-43 home win which meant the aggregate scores were tied 92-92.

How many people knew the rules? The rulebook clearly states that Golden Heats will apply in the Playoffs in the event of a tie, and although the programme made no allowance for them, that is what we got.

There are (initially) three Golden Heats with the first team to gain a heat advantage being the winners.

The riders for the first one were the same men who contested heat 15, and after a lap or so Rene Bach was in front with Ryan Fisher falling off.

That was that then? Well it wasn't because the amazing Matthew Wethers had other ideas. With the exceptionally impressive Bach using the outside line, Wethers chose a neat white line method - and squeezed through for a superb win to keep the tie alive!

Out came Wolbert and Tully against Larsen and King for the second Golden Heat. Larsen made the start - but with a superb first lap effort in the horrible conditions, our pair squeezed through for a tie-winning 5-1. They both got the bumps but there were at least 5 heroes in the home camp on the night.

Ryan Fisher was for much of the night the dominant man, and Michal Rajkowski is now a much better wet track rider than he seemed to be in early season.

There wasn't much happening at reserve for the Monarchs, with Byron taking only a couple of gifts and Aaron surprisingly ineffective after a good show in the first leg.

And the controversy? Well the refereeing was unbelievable. The worst one was the exclusion of Wolbert after a brilliantly executed overtake on Bach in heat 7. The Dane ran into him - and Kevin was excluded.

There were others - match report coming shortly.

But Monarchs are through to the Playoff Finals, starting next Friday (presumably against King's Lynn). Well done to the team, and to Newcastle on making a great fight of it.