A point at Derwent Park

REPORT Saturday 1st September 2018, 10:22pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Both teams gave their all in the hunt for vital league points in a highly entertaining encounter before the Staggs Bar Monarchs went down 48-42 to the Workington Comets tonight.

We got close enough, just two down going into the last heat, to believe we might have done even better but in truth the point was all we deserved. Our two Swedes had off-nights and we were whacked 12-2 at reserve, though on the other hand we gained out of a shocking performance by Comets' no. 1 Nikolai Klindt who never got his machinery working.

Over the first eight heats it was nip and tuck and we led after heat 1, heat 5 and heat 7, only to be pegged back each time. We had four of the first five race winners and the pairing of Josh Pickering and Richie Worrall was very effective with 9 points from their first two heats.

Amongst the early highlights Erik Riss had a great battle with Jensen in heat 6, passing round the outside early on but being taken on the final turn in the same manner.

In heat 8 we saw Joel really getting involved for the only time in the match, passing Jensen for second place several times before losing out in the end.

That was a 1-5 loss and so was heat 9, and we lost another 4-2 in heat 11 when Kyle Bickley added another good point (ahead of Victor) to the paid win he got in heat 2. The boy is coming on.

That allowed us to bring in Richie alongside Josh again as a tac sub in heat 12. This was a fantastic race which Ben Barker led till the last bend only for Josh to pull off one of his high, brave outside overtakes.

Ricky and Erik followed that up with a heat 13 5-1 and we were level, game on again!

Richie led heat 14 but Rene Bach caught him, so we went into the last heat 2 behind, Bach and Jensen against Wells and Pickering. We probably could have picked any two from four for our pair but after some tough moves it was the Comets who got in front. Josh tried a big outside move again, came down and we couldn't quibble with the decision to award a home 5-1.

Full Result Details