Scunthorpe take a healthy lead

REPORT Friday 23rd August 2024, 11:43pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Things did not go at all to plan for the Stellar Monarchs in the BSN Series semi final tonight in spite of an opening heat 5-1. They enjoyed little luck and lost Justin Sedgmen in a nasty crash in his third heat, but there can be no arguments that Scunthorpe gave a very good display and deserved their victory. They were solid throughout their team.

Monarchs no. 1 Josh Pickering said after the match "I'm very disappointed, it's not what I expected and it's not what I wanted. I'm quite annoyed to be honest.

"We needed more race wins, we didn't have enough heat winners and when we did win, it was 3-3s. We lost Sedgy which is no good.

"The track staff did incredibly well to get the match on but then we're riding on a track which is not what we are used to again. Sometimes it's easier for an away team to just ride the track as it is than for the home side to chase the setup."

It all started well with the opening race 5-1 which was very comfortable, but that was the last time Monarchs were ahead. Scorpions' excellent reserves levelled up, and though Castagna and Sedgmen took the next two heats, the scores were still level.

Scunthorpe went ahead as Palm Toft won heat 5, and there was fun and games after heat 6 as Josh Pickering was forced wide while trying an outside pass on Kyle Howarth, and let Kyle know he though he had overdone it a bit.

Sedgmen won heat 7 and Thomson heat 8, with Connor Coles fighting a great battle against the visiting pair in the latter race before being relegated to the back.

After two pointless rides, Lasse Fredriksen produced a battling win in heat 9 over Howarth, even though he had come down heavily in the first running of the heat.

Monarchs were still two points down after heat 10 though, and things really turned sour in heat 11 as Sedgmen lifted down the back straight and clipped Connor Mountain's machine before spinning into the fence. After lengthy treatment he did rise but had to pull out of the match with an arm and hand injury – bad enough but the severity of the crash suggested it might have been worse.

With Sedgmen out of the match Monarchs' hopes were gone in truth, though they did take an advantage in an unusual heat 12. First Ablitt was excluded after a first bend crash, then Fredriksen was ruled out perhaps controversially as Lambert came through inside him after lifting down the back straight.

Connor Coles who was pointless at that stage rode a tenacious race to beat Lambert in the rerun. Scunthorpe took a couple more 4-2s over the closing heats to run out comfortable winners with even Pickering unable to find enough drive to pass, in spite of herculean efforts.

Full Result Details