Beaten By 10 At Poole

REPORT Wednesday 3rd July 2024, 9:33pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Stellar Monarchs put up a much more spirited performance albeit once again in defeat as they went down by ten at Poole on Wednesday night.

As always on nights where the score is that close there are various ifs, buts and maybes but at the very least pride was retained after the previous evenings heavy defeat at Plymouth.

Team boss John Campbell saying after, 'We didn't let them get away, it was a much much better performance than last night and we battled hard from top to bottom.

'It is incredible to believe Josh has scored so few as we knew he goes everywhere and gets double figures but he spent the whole night working on his bike and on another night he gets 10 and we put them under much more pressure.'

It was a close affair throughout with the hosts taking an early lead courtesy of a hat-trick of 4-2 advantages in the opening heats.

The next race looked like the Monarchs would reduce the arrears before Connor Coles engine disintegrated on the final corner, an expensive one for the reserve.

Neither team could extend or reduce the gap over the next four heats before the up to that point pointless Josh Pickering was introduced as a tactical substitute in heat nine.

Pickering's partner Justin Sedgmen continued his sparkling gating night hitting the front and with Pickering battling past Zach Cook into third the deficit was down to four.

This was as good as got for the Monarchs although they kept the home side honest the rest of the way.

Sedgmen in particular carrying on his fantastic night with a great first corner to win heat 13 over the home top pair, Pickering trying every inch of what by this stage was a super slick trick just failing to get into the points.

Heat 15 was race of the night as home number one Richard Lawson just pipped Sedgmen to deny the Monarch his maximum. Castagna and Brennan passing and repassing also.

So, heat advantages in each of the last two races gave the score a bit more of a comfortable feel for the Pirates but they will have known they were in a meeting.

Poole Pirates 50 : Lawson 12, Thomsen 3+2, Ben Cook 7+1, Zach Cook 8, Tom Brennan 10+1, Hagon 7, Perry 3+1

Stellar Monarchs 40 : Pickering 3, Thomson 8+1, Fredriksen 3+1, Castagna 9, Sedgmen 14, James 0, Coles 3+1

Full Result Details