Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Friday 12th June 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

This was a big step forward for Glasgow, overturning the old order at least for the time being, and in a way that no-one could argue with.

They led by six points after two races, including the third successive 5-1 loss for Edinburgh in heat 1, and although Edinburgh turned it round to a 32-28 lead by heat 10, Glasgow kept the pressure on and won with a bit to spare in the end.

A bit of a sub-plot to the meeting was the dominance, especially in the latter stages, of gates 2 and 4. This is not a normal feature of Armadale meetings but certainly had a bearing here. Over the final 7 heats these gates took 29 points to 11.

The happiest man afterwards was probably Richard Lawson, who had by far his best meeting on this track and was only beaten twice in six rides – that’s the times he wasn’t on gate 2 or 4.

Aaron Summers, who had an unlucky engine failure in heat 10, and guest Richie Worrall gave powerful support, and there was a stack of points from reserve. Victor Palovaara started strongly, and as he faded James Sarjeant came more into the picture.

Sarjeant was pulled back twice for fliers, and probably should have been in heat 10 also, though Sam Masters overhauled him in that one.

The home top men weren’t as dominant as they usually are, in a fair measure due to those gates (Wolbert and Masters were beaten once each off a favourable gate, Cook and Sedgmen didn’t lose).

Erik Riss continues to develop well, and his win in the rerun heat 8 was another good one (off gate 2). However it was a tough night for Rob Branford and Max Clegg. Branford took a tumble in heat 8, having passed Palovaara he then pressed Lawson but clipped his back wheel.

It was a very competitive match raced in a good atmosphere, but the racing could have been better. The track was far too slick and those unbalanced gates played too large a part in things.

Full Result Details