Edinburgh Monarchs v Ipswich Witches

REPORT Friday 16th May 2014, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The scores were very tight over the first few heats with Ipswich’s opening pair prominent, but Edinburgh raised their game dramatically from heat 6 onwards.

This was a remarkable twelfth win in a row for the Scotwaste Monarchs since the season started, an all-time Premier League record, and in the end it was comfortable.

It all looked a bit different early on, especially as it transpired that the best two Ipswich riders were paired together. Richie Worrall and Gino Manzares leapt from the traps and fought off the early challenge from Justin Sedgmen, Craig Cook then came into the picture and put on some powerful pressure, edging ahead of Manzares round the final turn, but the American showed remarkable resilience to regain second down the final straight.

Aaron Fox upheld Stateside honour by taking his first 3-pointer for Monarchs, backed by Stevie Worrall to level the scores. Cameron Heeps then won a race, followed by another home maximum, and finally in this see-saw stage of the match the Witches went ahead again.

This time Manzares caught Max Fricke, who was concentrating on trying to pass Richie Worrall when he found himself relegated to third. It was a fine cutback by Manzares, normally a tactic the home men are most adept at.

We then saw the home riders display their fighting spirit. Sedgmen harried Rohan Tungate all the way in heat 6 before passing for a maximum with Cook, then Fox did really well again to hold off Morten Risager behind Sam Masters, and in heat 8 even Manzares could not disrupt the highly successful Sedgmen-Steve Worrall pairing who have had so many 5-1s this year.

The match had changed substantially and Ipswich never recovered. They lost another two 5-1s before sending out their no. 1 on the second TR in heat 11.

In this race unfortunately Fox got caught on the outside on the first corner and suffered a badly gashed leg, initially thought to be a worse injury. Masters countered the TR and although Risager did a grab a race win in heat 12, the match was all over.

Full Result Details