A STRANGE MATCH FOR SKY TV

The Scotwaste Monarchs just missed out on a very unlikely point at Berwick on Sky TV, going down 48-41 with Aaron Fox and Matthew Wethers taken to hospital after a truly alarming smash in heat 14.

It's a bit early for a diagnosis, but it is possible that Aaron may have got away with a severe battering. He certainly won't be racing at Somerset tomorrow. We don't have any news at this point on Matthew. Both the meeting ambulances and all the medical staff were occupied after the crash and heat 15 was delayed for a long time.

Aaron had been on the verge of taking his best race win to date in that heat 14, leading to the last bend and seeming certain to win. Matthew chased all the way but made a completely uncharacteristic misjudgement, racing into the bend and slamming into Fox's bike.

Aaron was thrown onto the track while Matthew flew over the fence, silencing the stadium.

We had been trailing 39-21 at heat 10 after a fairly insipid performance, even though we managed to take 5-1s in heats 1 and 3.

From heat 6 through to heat 10 we gained only one more than the minimum (Worrall beating Edberg) and we had been so taken aback that we hastily used both our TRs without gaining anything.

Sam Masters was having a particular struggle on an engine he had just had serviced, completely lacking speed.

Over the next four races, things changed completely as we started making the gate. Heat 11 had always looked a much better TR option, and we did indeed get a 5-1 with Sedgmen ahead and Cook keeping his eye on Doolan, well adrift.

In heat 12 Max Fricke became the first rider to take a point off Berwick's lethal reserve Kus in an exciting heat, with Fox third ahead of Jensen.

Sam Masters then got on a decent bike - Sedgmen's - and led the way with Cook again riding shotgun before flying to the front on the last lap.

Then came the unwanted drama of heat 14 (in which Berwick should surely have used Kus) and when we finally got the last race run, Bandits took the 5-1 they needed to get all three points.

By then everyone was a bit shell shocked after what we had seen. Hopefully the aftermath isn't as bad as it might have been.

TV TIME

The Scotwaste Monarchs start a busy spell of matches with a League match at Berwick on Tuesday evening.

The Sky cameras will be rolling for the top of the table battle between the Monarchs and the Bandits with both teams already having won a match at the track earlier in the season. In the last encounter the Bandits were easy winners and have since strengthened their team with the introduction of Alex Edberg in place of Liam Carr.

Both teams will be at full strength and the Scotwaste Monarchs will be hoping for a more dominant performance from Craig Cook to help in achieving a win. No matter what it won't be easy as the Bandits have, generally, been in dominant form this year.

Hopefully the rain falling in the area will clear in time for the match to get underway at 7.30pm.