Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 7th July 2013, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We certainly didn’t go through to Ashfield expecting a repeat of our previous result there.

What we did get was a decent match, with Monarchs holding the upper hand over the second half of the meeting and just missing out on the fourth point.

We were off to an interesting start as Joe Screen led all the way in the opener till the final turn, when he drifted unexpectedly, allowing Craig to nip through for a win and a 4-2.

Joe Jacobs won heat 2 to level. Heat 3 was shared behind Bager who drove all the way round the outside on the first corner, then we went ahead again in heat 4 with Claus looking a lot more comfortable than he did on our previous visit.

Craig flew to a new track record in heat 5, knocking an amazing 1 second off the previous time (Lawson/Doolan). We had gated on a 5-1 but Derek rode far too tight and found first Compton then Bager passing.

Tigers then levelled through Screen and Raun, and we shared heat 7 behind Grieves. At 21-21 it was clearly going to be tight.

Heat 8 was a big one for us, Derek leading all the way and Max brilliantly slipping inside both Tigers on the final lap. It gave us a lead we never lost.

Claus won heat 9, and a 5-1 looked on the cards in heat 10 till Grieves passed Derek Sneddon. However we were now 6 ahead.

In fact all the remaining heats were shared, though the only race winner was Craig in heat 15. He lost his maximum to Grieves two heats earlier, and we just missed out on the fourth point when Claus went too wide in the final heat and lost third place.

A win, a decent match and no injuries – no complaints!