Rain wrecks the Derby

REPORT Friday 9th August 2024, 9:31pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Oh what an anti-climax, the much anticipated Monarchs v Tigers Championship clash was initially damaged and then finally wiped out by some horrible weather. The Stellar Monarchs had worked hard to gain a 25-16 lead in spite of serious problems for guest Erik Riss, but when the rain returned after heat 7 and showed no signs of passing, that had to be that.

Monarchs' captain Paco Castagna said "I can't get my head around the Scottish weather. We unloaded the van in the sunshine, then there was rain, then sun then rain. In was a shame because we were in a good spot but conditions were getting a little bit too dangerous."

It may have been that we could have reached heat 10 to allow the result to stand but for the delay caused by the incident in heat 4, all too reminiscent of the one recently in which Justin Sedgmen was injured when Sam McGurk lost control off gate 1. This time Matt Marson picked up and wiped out both Erik Riss and Connor Coles. Thankfully no injury but bike problems for both, with Riss losing a chain after gating in the rerun, then suffering a two-minute exclusion in his next heat.

There were some things to remember: for Monarchs, Josh Pickering slipping inside Chris Harris to join Kye Thomson in heat 1, Paco Castagna passing the Tigers pair off the second bend in heat 3, Lasse Fredriksen holding off Harris to complete a heat 5 5-1 with Castagna and best of all, a race win for Max James over Leon Flint just before the call off.

For Tigers, a big win for star reserve James Pearson in heat 2, and two wins for guest Anders Rowe.

It was all pretty rain-affected and the fixture will have to be restaged at some stage.

Full Result Details