THAT'S 23 MATCHES NO DEFEATS

The Scotwaste Monarchs held on to win a hard-fought and nerve-wracking match at Ashfield today by 47-43, stretching our unbeaten run to 23 matches since the start of the season and our lead at the top of the Premier League to an astonishing 16 points.

But the best thing about it all was that it was a Scottish derby to remember, something we haven't been able to say often enough in recent seasons. Alex Harkess said "We certainly didn't get everything our own way today, but we dug deep to win and that's what good teams do."

A good crowd on a sunny day saw Monarchs take the lead in heat 3, extend their advantage in heat 5, and yet never shake off the Tigers. They cut us to two points with a 5-1 in heat 9, and every point was being fiercely fought over.

We went into the last race four points up, but it took a fantastic ride by Craig Cook to ensure that we weren't pegged back to a draw. Craig's gating was way off all day and he and Max were left standing from the start by Tigers' top men Rusty Harrison and Kevin Wolbert, both riding very well.

Craig was so far behind it seemed even he would not be able to overhaul the leading two. However he did catch Rusty coming off the fourth bend on lap three, and in spite of a great effort by Rusty trying to take second spot back, he came down on the final turn.

Instead of then giving the race result the announcer embarked on a speech about how well the Tigers had done against Britain's no. 2, and we eventually had to deduce that the official result was a 3-3 giving us a 47-43 victory. The result was announced eventually though it wasn't clear why there was no time for the heat as there was no obvious reason for it to be stopped at such a late stage.

Craig's score of 7+2 was his lowest in a match he has completed for us since 22nd July 2012 (at Glasgow!) which in itself is remarkable, but it also went to show that the rest of the team are contributing brilliantly.

Steve Worrall and Justin Sedgmen were our top scorers as well as the only two Monarchs who gated consistently! They did a great job but I doubt anyone would disagree with our choice of riders for the final heat.

Max Fricke continues to excel and he had the race of the night in heat 12 with a stunning last lap pass on Theo Pijper.

Sam, like Craig, was slow from the starts but he was always pressing. We'll have to wait for the video to see why heat 13 was stopped when our pair had ridden so brilliantly to get ahead round the first corner.

Derek won heat 2 as he had at Redcar and also took a crucial point in heat 12. Aaron was not at his best, being pushed out after gating well in heat 2, though he did lead no less an opponent than Wolbert for three laps in heat 6!

Glasgow performed admirably and there was some impressive passing with Rusty Harrison the man of the meeting – he can rarely have ridden better. Let's hope for more Scottish derbies of this standard, whatever the result.

BIG CHALLENGE AT ASHFIELD

With the weather much better today the Scotwaste Monarchs travel to Glasgow on Sunday afternoon for another league match. It looks like the Tigers will have their strongest team of the season so far so the Scotwaste Monarchs unbeaten record is on the line.

The Tigers just pipped Plymouth last week but that was after losing Anders Thomsen after his second ride. He's back this week fully fit and at reserve Tigers have a potent guest in Mason Campton.

The Scotwaste Monarchs are in top form after their big victory at Redcar on Thursday night and sit thirteen points clear at the top of the Premier League.

Everything points to a great tussle in the sunshine at Ashfield this afternoon.