FIVE IN A ROW FOR MONARCHS – ANOTHER RECORD FOR CRAIG!

NEWS Sunday 7th July 2013, 7:24pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs won their fifth successive away match in all competitions when they came out on top by 48-42 in a tense and competitive match at Glasgow this afternoon.

And on top of that Craig Cook knocked an amazing full second off the track record in heat 5, the new time being 57.0. This follows his new record at Armadale on Friday!

Alex Harkess said "Craig commented before heat 5 that if he got a clean start he would have a go for the record. It just shows the amazing form he is in. He's happy and so are we."

It's very tight at the top of the table with just three points between second placed Redcar and sixth placed Ipswich. Monarchs lie fourth but with matches in hand over all the others in contention for the playoffs.

Because of our big Ashfield win at the end of May, some might have thought we would have it easy today, but the riders certainly were not in that frame of mind. They fought for every point and the scores were still level at heat 7.

Heat 8 was probably the most important on the day. After a poor second ride Derek Sneddon was determined to make the heat his, and he gated well. Riding wider than in his earlier races, he almost overcooked it but by mid-race he was clear.

Meanwhile Max Fricke was creeping closer to Jacobs and Raun and made his move on the last lap. He squeezed under Jacobs, then caught Raun on the final corner to give us an advantage we never lost.

A further 4-2 in heat 11 extended the lead, and the final four heats were all shared.

Claus Vissing was in third spot early in heat 15, enough to secure the fourth match point, but he went too wide on the 3rd corner and got into deep dirt, losing the point to Bager.

Tigers offered far sterner resistance than on our earlier visit, and their top four of Screen, Bager, Grieves and Compton had seven race wins between them.

Joe Jacobs won heat 2 but after that we kept their reserves out of the points.

Craig Cook won four races, losing only to Grieves in heat 13. With James clear Craig concentrated on keeping Joe Screen at the back. As always Craig was a joy to watch.

Derek Sneddon lost position a few times as he did on Friday, but his gating was good enough to bring him an important 5 points.

Gating was not a strong point with the middle pairing of Theo Pijper and Jozsef Tabaka, but they shared all their races as a pair. At times Jozsef had to win his points from the back.

Max Fricke had an excellent day, using a crafty inside line rather than venturing into the deep dirt. He also won several points from the back.

Claus Vissing had a much better meeting than last time and looked convincing on his way to a double figure score.

And it was a welcome back to Mitchell Davey, who rode well enough in his three heats without managing to score. He'll be happy to be back.

Full marks to Glasgow for working to hard on the track, keeping the dust pretty well damped down all day. And of course, producing a track record!

Full Result Details