REDCAR MATCH OFF AFTER 9

NEWS Thursday 10th April 2008, 1:38am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs were locked in a hard fought encounter with the Redcar Bears at the STMP when the rains came and caused an abandonment with the Bears just ahead at 28-26.

It was a disappointing way to end a match which seemed to be going right down to the final heat.

Once again the Monarchs looked a strong outfit with a special mention for the fast and exciting riding of Thomas Jonasson on his return from injury.

He chased James Grieves hard in heat 3, then flew past Ty Proctor to win heat 7 in style. It looks like our Swede has arrived!

We had a shock in heat 1 when the home reserves took a 5-1 (Bugeja was replacing Havelock who was excluded on two minutes).

In a way that was an indicator of things to come because gating was pretty important, as Ryan Fisher had found out in the opener.

Ryan soon showed he had learnt from it though by beating James Grieves in his next one after a fine first turn - in fact he did it twice because the first one was called back for a Grieves flier.

Matthew Wethers showed some great form, winning his first two heats from the back. He was involved in a curious incident with Havelock in heat 6, Havelock running into the back of him and then parking his bike on the turn.

The race had to be stopped and rerun with Havelock excluded. His behaviour was disappointing for such an experienced rider.

Redcar had just edged back into a 2-point lead after heat 9 when heavy rain started. The riders and referee gave it a chance to stop, and there was some attempted track grading, but eventually the call-off decision seemed the correct one.