Workington Comets v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Saturday 12th April 2014, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We had pulled off a shock win at Berwick the previous Saturday, and taken a healthy victory over Workington the night before, so what chance of an even bigger surprise against the highly rated Comets on their home track?

No problem! It got quite tight for a while but in truth this was our most comprehensive away win of the three we have had so far, and we should with luck have won by more.

Even though we lost the opening race, in which Craig had to work hard to pass Mason Campton, we then hit two 5-1s and a 4-2 in successive heats. Steve Worrall gated in heat 2, and Justin Sedgmen passed Mills.

Justin then did it from the gate in heat 3 with Max Fricke backing up and Ricky wells nowhere.

Next it was Sam Masters powering away while Rene Bach passed Steve to salvage 2 points. That made the score 16-8 in our favour so we just had to maintain that.

In fact it got a bit closer a couple of times. Cook won heat 5, Masters beat Grajczonek in heat 6 and with Sedgmen taking another point, that put us 10 up and allowed the TR.

Bach got the 6 but he had to squeeze between Worrall and the fence to get it. Unfortunately we then lost an unexpected 5-1 in heat 8, and our lead was reduced to 27-24.

We didn’t panic, even with Justin missing heat 9 after a 2-minute exclusion. A fine ride by Sam Masters behind Steve Worrall brought us a 5-1 in heat 9, and even though we lost the next two heats 4-2 we still held that 3-point advantage.

Heat 12 was shared and heat 13 was the big one of the night. It was pulled back twice, but Sam off gate 4 and Craig off 2 eventually hit the front and rode together to ensure that Grajczonek had no chance.

Max and Steve then took another 5 in heat 14 and we only needed a finisher in heat 15 for all three points. There was a little bit of worry as Sam fell and Craig ran into him, but we got the point in the restart to take the 4 points we deserved.

Full Result Details