GOOD SHOWING GIVES MONARCHS A FIRST LEG LEAD

NEWS Friday 12th April 2013, 11:04pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

On a cold damp night the Scotwaste Monarchs took a 27-point lead in the first leg of their knockout cup tie against Leicester, even though they lost two 5-1s during the evening.

There’s still work to do in the second leg but it is surely a score that Monarchs would have settled for at the start of the night.

It was another very impressive show from the team, with Craig Cook invincible once again on a paid maximum. For the second week running though this wasn’t enough to win him the DDS Monarch of the Match award, this time due to a thrilling display of brave and skilful riding by Jozsef Tabaka.

The Hungarian was unbeaten from his first five rides, including the race of the night against Lasse Bjerre in heat 12, in which Theo Pijper was also very prominent.

He had already visited the fence in heat 11 when Jan Graversen failed to turn at the first bend, and he went into the boards even harder in heat 14 after an accidental nudge from Kevin Doolan. The decision to exclude Jozsef didn’t seem fair but the good news was that he rose OK after the crash.

He said “I was lucky because my bike went in first and knocked the fence down.” Jozsef’s bike though is completely written off, though he has already had generous contributions from several supporters to help him with repairs.

Claus Vissing had another excellent meeting, passing Magnus Karlsson in heat 4 and winning heat 7 from the dangerous Bjerre / Doolan pairing. He made a mistake on the first corner of heat 11 and earned an exclusion but bounced back with a win in heat 13.

Derek Sneddon was solid, Max Fricke looked quicker than last week, and Marcel Helfer scored a paid win in heat 2, though he was disappointing in the heat 14 rerun.

Leicester will be disappointed with their showing, both Nieminen and Karlsson being out of touch, but they will be determined to bounce back tomorrow.