Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 14th June 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After losing at home to the Tigers, we went to Ashfield with rider replacement operating for Rob whose shoulder was injured. Glasgow fielded the same team as Friday because Nick Morris was detained for the World Cup Final in Denmark.

So, what chance? We knew our boys wanted to make up for the home loss, and maybe Tigers thought it would be easy (unlikely).

Whatever was the case, we ripped into them right from the start, took a 4-2 with Erik Winning the opener, went 6 ahead in heat 3 and never really looked like losing the lead. In fact we only lost one heat advantage, a 1-5 in heat 8 which we thought Sedgmen would cover as rider replacement. It was his only bad ride.

We enjoyed another standout performance from the one and only Craig Cook, and just how much great entertainment and success do we owe him for? This time it was a 15 point maximum, and it was clear that he could win whether he made the start or not (mostly he didn’t).

With that foundation, the others did their bit towards the victory. Sam had a great win from the back in his second ride, Justin was flying most of the time with three wins, Kevin won the rerun heat 12 and Erik added another 4 points to that opening heat win.

He lost another point unluckily when his clutch burnt out in heat 4. In heat 12 he came off after getting too close with Kevin, and injured a pinkie, but we believe not seriously.

Max Clegg had a great meeting with three good third places at a track where all points are hard to come by.

After we lost that heat 8 5-1 we were just four up, but added two 4-2s straight after. Heat 13 was another 4-2 with a scuffle afterwards when Lawson lost his rag, and Sedgmen’s win in heat 14 made victory certain.

Lawson crashed in the final heat but although it looked a bad one, he walked away and was fine for the British final the next day.

A great show by the team.