Empty Handed At Workington

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs left Derwent Park empty handed and frustrated as they went down to the Workington Comets 51-42.

The Monarchs as is perhaps becoming a worrying habit started the match slowly being 10-2 down after the first two heats and though they battled manfully a last heat maximum for the Comets meant the final margin was 9 and the Monarchs could not expand their lead at the top of the SGB Championship.

Team manager John Campbell stating after the match ‘We lost it at the start; it’s difficult to give Workington 8 points of a start and hope to do anything. Disappointing as well to lose the 5-1 in the last heat and that cost us the chance for points.’

The Monarchs could not make any great inroads after the first two heats and despite some battling rides running 9 lasts to Workington’s 6 meant heat advantages were at a premium and we could not claw our way back into the match.

There were positives that can be taken from the match with Mitchell Davey riding well after burning out a clutch in his second ride. Davey’s third to first burst in heat 14 his finest ride since coming back into the second tier of the sport and he can take heart from this.

Josh Pickering looked back to something like his usual self using the outside line to some aplomb and all of the top 4 recorded at least one heat victory. However with a lack of consistent backup the visitors could not make inroads into the lead that the Comets had built up. Anytime it looked like the Monarchs had a way back a Craig Cook or Thomas Jorgensen ride was in the offing and the hard work was undone.

Workington are in a fine run of form and this result sees them jump into the top 4 and the playoff places so it is a case of defeated but not disgraced for the Monarchs as they now look ahead to Peterborough’s visit to Armadale this Friday.

On The Road Again

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs are on their travels once again as we head to Derwent Park looking to extend our lead at the top of the SGB Championship.

This will not be an easy task against a Workington side that is rounding into form and has strengthened since we saw them at Armadale a few weeks ago.

The Comets are unbeaten at home with an unexpected draw against Redcar the only blip on their record. The Cumbria men made up for this with their first away win of the season against the same side on Thursday and will now be looking to catapult themselves into the playoff positions with a win against the Monarchs.

Led from the front by the one and only Craig Cook who is having as good a season as he has ever had and celebrates his 30th birthday this weekend the Comets have a solid and exciting line-up. We all saw how good Thomas Jorgensen can be the other week when the Comets visited and the likeable Dane appears to have turned the corner after some early season machinery issues.

The middle order of Ty Proctor and James Sarjeant also looks to add strength. Proctor is having his finest season in years averaging 8 points so far and while still finding his feet after replacing Adam Roynon Sarjeant can never be counted out due to his gating skills and when in front is a tough rider to overcome.

Riders having their best years to date seem to be a theme throughout the Comets line-up as the same can be said for both Mason Campton and Matt Williamson also. Campton now looks to be over his visa issues and is turning into an accomplished performer and with the extra spice of coming up against good friend and former teammate Ricky Wells will be sure to bring the best out in the Kurri Kurri born racer. Williamson has been the revelation of the season at this level in my opinion an always stylish and well turned out rider this is now being converted into scoring power and an increase in average from his starting figure of 3.58 to his current figure of 7.09 is testament to this.

The Comets line-up is completed by Rob Shuttleworth, Shuttleworth was a potential target for the Monarchs last season before we decided on Dan Bewley and he will be looking to show us what we missed out on in this one as well.

As for the Parsons Peebles Monarchs well another Sunday another trip south and as always we will be setting out our stalls to gain at least a point and then take it from there. There is plenty of Workington experience in the ranks with Ricky of course a former Comets number 1, Sam has had many a good match there (although he will want to forget the machinery nightmares he had their last season) and Mitchell has already performed with some aplomb at Derwent Park this season recording a paid 5 score guesting for Scunthorpe earlier in the season.

We would also expect this to be a track for our Germans to excel at with its wide sweeping bends and it was good to see both out in the second half at Armadale on Friday testing particularly Erik who wasn’t happy with the power he was getting from his engines. It will be a trip into the unknown for Josh Pickering but he is up for the challenge and is another who it is hoped the wide open spaces will be a relief for after a tough few weeks on some of the tighter tracks in the league. That leaves Max Clegg who is in the form of his life and seems to have a completely different mindset these days. Max has sometimes beaten himself mentally before he even gets to tapes at some of these tracks but having talked to him on Friday I can tell that is not the case this time and he travels full of confidence.

So a tough one to predict as both sides look very evenly matched from top to bottom. There will be some fantastic tussles between the team’s respective top ends and with consistency throughout both line-ups this one truly does look very hard to predict. Would I be surprised if this team came back north with points in the bag? Well nothing surprises me with this Monarchs team and I for one can’t wait to see what the match holds.