A Point At Peterborough

REPORT Sunday 7th May 2017, 9:58pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

A depleted Parsons Peebles Monarchs battled hard before going down 48-45 at Peterborough this evening in a result that gathers them a point in the SGB Championship.

The Monarchs made a decent start and actually led 19-17 with 6 heats gone. However a weak middle order with Erik Riss missing due to German commitments being replaced by National League rider Ben Morley and Max Clegg struggling on the big pacey track meant that victory was unlikely and two 5-1’s against this pairing in heats 7 and 10 were a step too far as the meeting threatened to get away from the visitors.

The Monarchs battled back manfully to secure the point though and team manager John Campbell was buoyed by the performance of the riders that were on show rather than what could have been ‘I think we came very close to taking something here with the boys we had, a bit more luck and we might well have done it. It was an excellent team performance much more like what we have been doing this year. A good night!’

The Monarchs were led from the front by captain and number 1 Sam Masters who put the disappointment of missing out on the next round of the World Championship qualifiers in Denmark on Saturday behind him to be top scorer on the night with 12 this including a 6 point tactical ride in heat 11 which tightened the scores and allowed the Monarchs back in. Masters being well backed up by Ricky Wells whose heat 15 win clinched the point for the Monarchs scoring 10 overall and young Aussie Josh Pickering seeing the Peterborough track for the first time and riding with 2 broken fingers and tendon damage in his left hand continued his excellent start to the season with 7. Special mention must also go to guest Danny Ayres, a battling and committed performance seeing him add 8 to the Monarchs tally and this must surely put him in the shop window for a Championship place.

All the Monarchs can be happy with their nights work though as they secured a point that not many predicted they would get strengthening their position at the top of the SGB Championship.

Full Result Details