18 Points To Make Up On Friday

The Stellar Monarchs have left themselves with a mountain to climb if they are to progress to the semi final of the Knockout Cup after going down to a 54-36 defeat at Oxford on Wednesday night.

The visitors repeatedly had no answer for the hosts leaving Monarchs top man on the night Craig Cook to say to the BSN after

'The old saying is you need to pull the finger out and we might need to pull two or three out on Friday.

'We've got a lot of work to do but the boys are capable of doing it and we need to get the heads down and focus on Friday'

Things didn't start horrifically for the Monarchs and with heat wins for Kyle Bickley in a re-run heat two and Craig Cook in heat four the gap was only four points at this stage although both races were not without incident.

First up Jacob Hook was the aggrieved man after he and home reserve Henry Atkins clashed coming out of the second bend. Referee Barbara Horley remarkably saying the Monarch had fallen off on his own, Hook's destroyed front wheel making it pretty obvious this wasn't the case.

Heat four say an even nastier incident as Craig Cook led from Lewi Kerr. Kerr going for an outside swoop on the final corner collecting Cook's back wheel and sending both into the fence. Kerr subsequently being withdrawn from the meeting with concussion.

This would have no ill effect on the Cheetahs though as they would push on and build the gap from there.

Cook would put up the main resistance the rest of the way and would take the checkered flag after a spirited battle with Jordan Jenkins in heat nine.

Outside of this though the home men had the perfect recipe of winning the majority of races and not picking up last places and even when the Monarchs gated well the home men were able to hit the front most notably Sam Masters in heat 10 and Scott Nicholls in heat 12 who both executed excellent third to first maneuvers.

The Monarchs hoped to bounce back in heat 14 with Paco Castagna and Kyle Bickley hitting the front again though a little bit of naivety mixed in with tenacity from a home man meant only a share of the spoils could be achieved as Jenkins picked off both Armadale men.

The final race saw former Monarch Masters complete an immaculate maximum leaving the Monarchs to face a monumental battle if they are to overthrow the deficit and progress in the second leg at Armadale on Friday night.