Sheffield Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

Our objective in the first leg of this potentially tough tie was to keep the score close, and that was achieved.

The first heat went to surprise packet Ashley Birks who looked very quick. Sam Masters pushed him hard but had to keep an eye on Tigers' guest Lasse Bjerre just behind him. Erik Riss got round OK at the rear.

We expected a tough match on the fast track for the reserves, and even though Max Clegg was briefly ahead the home pair were on a 5-1 from the fourth bend of lap one. So we trailed by 6 already!

Garrity got a blatant roller from gate 1 in heat 3, and won the heat, but Birks this time was at the back when he pulled out of the race.

Craig Cook was impressive winning heat 4 in the fastest time of the night, then Garrity discovered the danger of trying to jump the start when he picked up a tapes exclusion in heat 5. The rerun was shared with a good point for Riss.

Cook won heat 6 and Wolbert heat 7, with Sedgy third after a great battle with the home pair, so the score was now 23-19.

Erik got into second off the second bend in heat 8 but carried too much speed into the next turn and dropped to third. 8 down now, which remained the same as Cook beat Birks and Garrity in heat 9.

We took another 4-2 in heat 10 through Wolbert and Sedgmen, then Sam won his first race beating Compton in heat 11. Excellent work by Branford after changing his bike for heat 12, passing Sissis and helping Wolbert through as well.

Compton beat Cook and Masters in heat 13 with Bjerre at the back, then Sedgmen won heat 14 to leave us 6 down going into the last race. Birks led the way but lost control and brought Compton down, and in the rerun we took a 5-1 from Craig and Kevin.

CUP DEFENCE BEGINS

The Border Roofing Monarchs travel to Sheffield's Owlerton Stadium on Thursday evening to start the defence of another of our trophies, the Knock Out Cup.

This year the competition is sponsored by Travel Plus Tours of Ipswich and the 1st leg at Sheffield on Thursday is sure to be hotly contested.

Sheffield team manager, Jack Lee, has been quoted as saying that his team requires a lead of twelve points to give a chance of progress to the quarter finals. We wouldn't be upset coming away with that kind of deficit although we'll hope to run the Tigers closer.

Craig Cook, called upto ride for his Polish team on Sunday, has already had a number of successful guest bookings at Sheffield this year and Sam Masters also does well at the track. Justin Sedgmen and Kevin Wolbert have been in good form recently but all eyes will be on Erik Riss to see how he performs.

Tigers have Lasse Bjerre guesting for the injured Simon Stead and use rider replacement for the sent home Ty Proctor. That gives everyone but Bjerre the chance of an extra race.

The aim tonight is to keep the scores as close as possible to give us a real chance of progress to the quarter finals at Armadale tomorrow. Redcar await the winners.