SIXTH WIN IN A ROW

NEWS Saturday 12th April 2014, 9:43pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Our astonishing team pulled off another amazing victory down at Workington tonight, the score of 43-50 if anything flattering the home team. That's six out of six so far for the Scotwaste Monarchs, equalling our best ever start to the season.

A home win over Glasgow next Friday should be enough to see us through to the League Cup semis - we are well clear in the section.

Fans of both teams were stunned as we set off like a steam train, in spite of losing heat one, and led by 23-13 after six heats. Justin Sedgmen took a paid win and a win from heats 2 and 3, and Sam Masters looked imperious as he won heats 4 and 6.

Masters indeed was our man of the match, and it showed that this year's team can still win when Craig Cook is a fraction below his best.

The Comets had the embarrassment of needing a TR in heat 7, and Bach took the 6 points in spite of a good effort by Steve Worrall.

Heat 8 was a bit of a shock for us as both Campton and Morris passed Steve Worrall, so suddenly our 10-point lead had shrunk to just 3.

There was no panic in the ranks though as Steve recovered to win heat 9, backed brilliantly by Sam who sat between him and the hard-trying Kyle Howarth for a 5-1.

Max Fricke, excellent throughout, was so unlucky in heat 10 to lead all the way, comfortably, but suffer a bike problem on the last corner. He was caught by Grajczonek, and quite a few thought by Campton as well, but the ref gave him second. Was he watching?

We lost another 4-2 when Bach headed Cook, and heat 12 was shared, so going into heat 13 we led 39-36. Tension was high and this race was stopped twice as first Bach then Cook was warned for jumping the start.

At the third attempt, what a great moment as Masters and Cook hit the back straight in front. They kept close for the full race with Grajczonek pressing, but the 5-1 was ours and our riders celebrated.

We were strongly represented in heat 14 with Max Fricke taking the rider replacement ride for Derek, and he teamed up with Steve Worrall to comfortably deliver the 5-1 which made the 4 points all but certain.

We needed just a point from the last race but unfortunately Sam spun off on the first corner and Craig ran into him. There was a worrying delay before Craig was declared fit, and for once he didn't win the final heat, but he got the point which secured the maximum four match points - a brilliant team performance.