WOLBERT STARS BUT NOT ENOUGH BACKUP

NEWS Thursday 15th September 2011, 9:50pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Kevin Wolbert was in great form with 16 points at Redcar, and there was quite a bit of good racing, but we were never seriously in the hunt for league points and went down 54-39.

Wolbert was right at his best and a little unlucky even to drop two points. He came from the back to take second place in heat 1, and in heat 13 came off the unproductive inside gate against the strong pairing of Proctor and Summers.

He was third from the tapes but passed Proctor superbly and was bearing down on Summers by the chequered flag.

Best support in the early stages came from Kalle Katajisto who was in exciting form and deserved more than his six points. He won his second race even though he had to dodge an attempted nudge by Gary Havelock as he went past up the final straight.

Thereafter Kalle had several exciting duels, notably with Aaron Summers in heat 11, but he didn't get quite the rewards he deserved.

Andrew Tully won two races late on but blew a motor in heat 15, while Kyle Howarth eventually got going later in the meeting. For Craig Cook it was another disappointing away match.

As well as Kalle, Kyle had cause to take exception to Gary Havelock's riding when he barged through in heat 14. Havelock eventually ground to a halt.

Our next match is away at Somerset next Wednesday with the return at Armadale on Friday. The current hope is that Matthew Wethers will return for the home match.