Edinburgh Monarchs v Scunthorpe Scorpions

REPORT Friday 1st May 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The final margin between the sides wasn’t too large but in all honesty this was not one of the better matches at Armadale, because it was too predictable.

There were precisely no close contests for the race victories. The home team took 13 of them, and it would have been 14 but for an unlucky crash in heat 11 for Craig Cook after losing a chain leaving the second bend.

However there were one or two interesting tussles for the minor places, mostly involving Max Clegg and Nike Lunna, and these gave the event such interest as it had.

Scunthorpe actually took the lead in heat 2 when Lunna won the heat after Rob Branford had fallen on the first bend. Carl Wilkinson passed Monarchs’ guest Kevin Doolan in heat 3 to keep the scores level, and it took a good ride by Max Clegg backing up Cook to give the home side the lead in heat 4.

Thereafter a predictable pattern was established, with Sam Masters, Kevin Wolbert and Craig Cook winning their heats with ease from the gate until Cook crashed out.

Doolan gave good backup and the home reserves tried hard to get amongst the points.

Carl Wilkinson rode consistently for the Scorpions, and Josh Auty at least managed one win when given the chance. Theo Pijper scored in all his rides without being particularly impressive, while Alex Davies improved after a slow start but lost points when he piled into the fence towards the end of heat 12.

Lunna had already been at Armadale and it was no surprise that he provided much of such entertainment as there was.

With rider replacement and the Cook accident, the home reserves had to take 13 rides which, popular as they are, was a little bit much.

Full Result Details