Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

REPORT Friday 4th September 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Newcastle could not find a PL guest for Lewis Kerr, and they lost their other guest Matthew Wethers in a heat 2 tumble, so they could have done with a lot more luck.

Nevertheless they kept the scores reasonably close for seven heats, and over the last four races they actually outscored Edinburgh. It was just the bit in the middle that went wrong, four 5-1s to the Monarchs in heats 8 to 11.

Craig Cook had missed the trip to Ipswich the night before and still looked a little under the weather, falling on the first corner of heat 13. However there is generally someone to pick up the baton, and on this occasion it was Kevin Wolbert and Justin Sedgmen who were both unbeaten from their programmed rides.

Sam Masters too was going well with some great gating though he was caught by the top Diamond Ludvig Lindgren in an entertaining heat 7. The Swede squeezed past on the inside and prevented Masters from cutting back past him. In his next ride though, Lindgren tried to muscle the impressive Wolbert off his line but finished up going too wide and into the fence.

Lindgren did impress overall, and so did Anton Rosen who rode hard for his points on his first Armadale appearance.

Steve Worrall was expected to be a formidable opponent but after being moved wide by Cook in the opener, letting in Sedgmen, he also conceded a 5-1 to Masters and Max Clegg during that mid-match slump and only came good for the 5-1 in the final race which might have Diamonds believing that they are not completely out of things.

Having done so well earlier the home pair in this heat were completely overwhelmed.

Wethers misfortune came on the second bend of lap three in heat 2, when he lifted and careered into the side of Rob Branford before tipping himself over the high side and hitting the ground hard. Certainly not what anyone wanted for the man who has ridden Armadale more times than any other rider.

Full Result Details