Plymouth Devils v Edinburgh Monarchs

The very long haul to Plymouth was rewarded with a sunny evening at the St Boniface Arena, and a very good team performance by the Scotwaste Monarchs to bring us 4 league points.

It was a performance in which everyone contributed important points. Plymouth haven’t enjoyed much success yet this season but it would be misleading to say that they are an easy touch.

Craig missed the gate in heat 1 and was at the back looking for a way through until the very last gasp when he snatched a point. Scores were still level after two with Kurtz winning but our pair passing Anderson.

The first running of heat 3 was stopped when Max was taken off on the first corner, but undaunted the youngster nipped away to team up with Theo for a 5-1 and a lead we never lost.

We had to work hard though. Claus won heat 4 while Jozsef took a point and Gathercole fell while last. Normal service was resumed for Craig in heat 5 (in the night’s fastest time) and we should have scored a maximum in heat 5 when Mitchell shot from the tapes.

He led for two laps, at the end of which Schramm tried to pass Claus, shot across the track and slammed the fence. It was an obvious case of a heat to be awarded as a 5-1, but for some reason it wasn’t. Nevertheless mitchell did the same in the rerun and we were on a 5-1 over Proctor till the final lap, when Mitchell made a mistake and dropped back to third.

We saw how quick Gathercole can be in heat 7, but took another advantage in heat 8 to go 10 ahead.

Mark Lemon took a TR and the Devils scored a 7-2 in heat 9, and they added a 4-2 in heat 10 to cut the gap to 30-33.

That was as close as we allowed them to get, and we had all of the remaining heat winners (three to Craig). The only bad moment was Jozsef’s fall in heat 12, injuring a wrist and missing his final ride in heat 14.

However that was a race win for Max Fricke so the youngster had the pleasure of clinching the match!