MONARCHS IN THE LEAGUE CUP SEMIS

NEWS Friday 10th May 2013, 11:05pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs duly qualified for the League Cup semis with a 56-36 win over Glasgow, a solid enough showing though we were badly let down by the Friday Armadale weather yet again.

Alex Harkess said “I think the track was really quite tricky after that pre-meeting rain. I’m just glad we got through it and qualified.”

It did brighten up during the meeting but the damage to the track had been done by the miserably cold and wet pre-meeting weather. Several of the riders found conditions difficult and while there were some interesting races, it was probably the least entertaining meeting of the season.

Jozsef Tabaka was the maximum man for the Monarchs with four wins and one heat where he finished second to partner Theo Pijper. The Hungarian really did make it look easy.

Craig Cook actually did drop a point, unusually, in heat 10 to James Wright. He stalked Wright all the way but the Tiger rode a clever race to hold him off. Craig was also led by Joe Screen in the last race but sliced through to the front.

Theo Pijper won three heats, and Claus Vissing was in the thick of things as always, having a good battle with Joe Screen in heat 11 until the heat was stopped when Joey Ringwood fell. Referee McGregor ruled that the race positions were not clear cut and ordered a rerun, which surprised some who had perhaps forgotten that the awarding of a heat is at the referee’s discretion.

More controversially, several heats were pulled back when it had appeared that riders (on both sides) had simply made fast starts.

Max Fricke continued his steady progress and the only home men a little below par were Derek Sneddon (who nonetheless opened the night with a 5-1) and Marcel Helfer.

Glasgow clung to Monarchs’ coat tails for much of the night with Joe Screen entertaining, and James Wright quick when he made decent starts. As on our opening night, Joey Ringwood was the most impressive of the new boys in the Tigers’ team.

Monarchs and Sheffield have both qualified for the semi-finals with the other two sections still to be decided.