KO'd In The Cup

REPORT Thursday 1st June 2017, 11:22pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs put in a battling display but ultimately went down 53-37 to Sheffield tonight in a result that ends our interest in this KO Cup going down 96-84 on aggregate.

In all fairness the Tigers were on top throughout and a mixture of strong gating and aggressive riding had them in control from the off. As is becoming a worrying trend for the Monarchs the match started on the end of a 5-1 reverse and with only a slim 4 point lead from the home leg this had been wiped out already.

The Monarchs reserve pair who both had their moments on the night briefly brought the visitors back into the aggregate lead with a heat 2 4-2 but the home men raced to another 5-1 in heat 3 and they were never behind on aggregate from there on in.

Monarchs captain Sam Masters having this to say afterwards ‘it’s a tough place to come and the home guys are pretty dialled in, I stopped Josh’s (Grajczonek) max and that’s pretty tough to do. I had some good races, I’m spewing about heat 15 but at this track you really have to stay on top of the set up and I didn’t quite have the speed in the last one. It’s a shame that it’s not the cup second leg tomorrow as I think we would beat them but it is what it is and we now focus on the rest of the season and the league is the main goal.’

The match really got away from the Armadale men in a three heat spell in the middle of the match when the home men rattled off a 4-2 followed by a brace of 5-1’s inspired by inform ex-Monarch Robert Branford and while the Monarchs were making good gates perhaps a little bit of naivety could be found in the lines they chose as the Tigers routinely passed them with apparent ease.

Masters showed he is back to his best form with 3 heat wins but he lacked the consistent back-up required to keep the score tight and 5 heat wins for the Monarchs to the Tigers 10 tells the story.

That is not to take anything away from the hosts who were clearly up for the challenge and did not let up with some skilful and forceful overtaking manoeuvres throughout an entertaining night played out on a glorious evening in South Yorkshire.

So the Monarchs participation in the cup is now at an end and all attention turns back to the league with the very same Sheffield side due at Armadale tomorrow night.

Full Result Details