12 point Monarchs win with Shielfield to come

REPORT Friday 26th July 2024, 10:06pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Stellar Monarchs would be happy enough to take a 12-point victory over Berwick tonight in a meeting which featured some very good racing. With Justin Sedgmen missing the four remaining home non-reserves knuckled down and scored well with all in double figures, but the Bandits did fight back towards the end to give them some thoughts of taking the aggregate bonus.

Monarchs' captain Paco Castagna was upbeat following the victory. He said "It was a good win, though we wanted to win by more. We are all happy but we did want more points. Heat 14 was my fault for missing the start.

"I think we're strong for tomorrow, we're going for a win there as well, that is the mindset. We have a good guest in Leon Flint you can't do better than that at Berwick."

Bandits were largely well served only by Lewis Kerr at no. 1 with 15 and guest reserve Joe Thompson with 10+1, outstanding in their respective roles. Thompson defeated the home senior reserve Coles five times in five clashes, a strong contribution for his team.

Ben Barker's two point tally guesting for Rory Schlein however was a big disappointment. They also had race wins from Danyon Hume and Drew Kemp but neither was consistent.

The visitors started well with Kerr winning heat 1 (even though Kye Thomson at one point had edged to the front), followed by a 4-2 in heat 2 after Max James fell.

Both Monarchs Fredriksen and Castagna passed Jye Etheridge in heat 3 for a 5-1 to give Monarchs a lead they never lost. Barker's first two rides were both home 5-1s so Monarchs led 22-14 after 6 races.

Danyon Hume only scored in one heat but that was a win in heat 8, a narrow victory over Kye Thomson, and with Joe Thompson passing Coles Berwick had pulled back to a 6-point deficit with a chance to bring Kerr into heat 9. This proved to be a turning point in the match, because a great ride by Castagna and Fredriksen resulted in a home 5-1. It was an especially good tactical ride by Fredriksen.

Good work again by Kye Thomson in heat 10 brought another 5-1, with Kemp falling as Thomson came under him.

There was no way back for the Bandits, though they did take a heat 13 4-2 and a heat 14 5-1 to reduce the deficit. Monarchs regained another 2 points in heat 15, one of the night's best heats with Pickering leading all the way and Thomson passing Kemp and almost catching Kerr on the line as well.

On to Shielfield tomorrow night.

Full Result Details