Another astonishing home win

REPORT Saturday 1st September 2018, 2:03am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We head to Armadale expecting a close match against a highly-rated visiting team, and yet our septet demolish the opposition. It's a pattern which has developed recently and continued with our 65-25 victory over Workington tonight, even though the Comets are the most successful away side in the Championship with four victories in their eight previous fixtures.

Home Swede Victor Palovaara who recorded his highest score for the team of 13+1 said "It was a good night for the whole team. Workington are strong and they came here and beat us before – I wasn't here then but I was told! The track was grippy as we asked for and it shows how good we are at home. They are a very good team though and it will be tough tomorrow."

Comets' top scorer Nicolai Klindt said "Edinburgh deserved to beat us. They are a lot stronger in depth than earlier in the season even though it's only two new riders. The track was different too, quite grippy on the inside which they used but with less dirt on the outside than last time. We didn't deserve to score any more than we did but we will be different tomorrow."

Surely no-one expected tonight's match to turn out as it did. But starting with four 5-1s, the Staggs Bar Monarchs never left any room for doubt that they were going to dominate this match. In the end we took ten 5-1 advantages and it wasn't until the final heat that the Comets managed a race win through Nicolai Klindt.

Not only were the Comets starved of race wins, they only had four second places as well! But it would be more interesting to talk about the home riders who are so hungry for success. Going in to the final race we had five unbeaten riders, but Klindt burst the full scores of Ricky Wells (who gave strong chase and got close) and Victor Palovaara who had scorched to four victories earlier.

So the maxi-men were Erik Riss, Richie Worrall and Joel Andersson. Joel had expressed disappointment at missing out on full scores in recent fixtures but he made no mistake here. Richie has only lost one Armadale heat to the opposition since joining us (because he fell) and never looked like losing tonight – he always seems to have a very clear plan when he hits the first corner, even if he isn't in front. He will ride a line which takes him to the front by the third corner. His toughest heat was heat 5 in which he really had to force ahead of Klindt entering that third corner.

And Erik Riss (who missed a plane and might have missed the match had he not managed to re-route via Brussels) was equally determined round that first corner and produced the ride of the night to pass both Klindt and (on the last bend) Bach in heat 11.

Very frequently our riders were hitting the front from the tapes. It's hard to understand how dominant we are in that aspect of racing at the moment, or how poor the Comets were. Other than the captain's rides in heat 11, the two most interesting heats featured William Lawson. He started with a paid win, then passed Mason Campton in heat 11 and Rene Bach in heat 14. Both would be regarded as good scalps but they both got him back for the third places.

One Comet who would sure have done well in grippy conditions which he likes, and that is Dan Bewley. But don't go thinking the track was unreasonably difficult; other than Proctor coming off at the first bend in heat 1, there were no fallers and no-one seemed to be in any difficulty. We're just going very, very well at home.

Tomorrow's match at Workington of course is even more important as far as Playoff qualification goes, so we'll see how well we go down there. The Comets are unbeaten at home and they need points also. There's nothing like a bit of pressure.

Full Result Details