Reading Racers v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Monday 23rd June 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Reading?s recent form has been good, but another strong Monarchs? performance saw us safely through to the Premier Trophy Final.

Defending a 22-point lead, the only wobbles came early on. The first heat went badly, an easy 5-1 for Mark Lemon and Chris Mills over William Lawson and Thomas Jonasson, and after Andrew Tully had taken a speedy win in heat 2, Racers added two points to their advantage in heat 3.

It was won by their top man Ulrich Ostergaard, and Tomas Suchanek caught and passed Derek Sneddon during the heat.

It looked like we were in for a tough night, but Ryan Fisher showed his team mates the way by flying round the field on the opening bends to win heat 4.

This was Aaron Summers? second ride and he was obviously suffering from his prang the day before. It was no bad thing to have got two of his rides out of the way early on.

Heat 5 was even more encouraging. William made the start and led all the way from the Danish powerhouse Ostergaard. Although Thomas didn?t score he had a much better ride, pressing Suchanek hard all the way.

Lemon and Mills made the gate again in heat 6 but this time they couldn?t complete the job, as Fisher produced a magnificent wide sweep on the pits bend, rounding both home riders and coming out of the turn well clear.

Andrew Tully also got past Lemon and moved in to challenge Mills, but Andrew lifted allowing Lemon back through. Andrew fell at the next corner trying to recover position.

That was three race winners in a row, and heat 7 improved our position dramatically. Derek and Matthew hit the front and held off Madsen fairly easily. The margin on the night was now just two points.

There was no stopping Thomas in heat 8 as he raced away to win by a huge margin. Andrew beat Nicki Glanz and we were level.

After five heat winners in a row, we lost out in heat 9 as Ostergaard took the first point off Ryan, while Andrew finished at the back after falling at the first attempt to run the heat.

Heat 10 was a great effort by Derek Sneddon. Matthew lifted from the start as Derek went ahead, and in spite of a great deal of pressure from Mills and Lemon he held on for all four laps. Matthew got close but couldn?t pick up a point.

Heat 11 looked very promising for us. Thomas again rode a very quick race to win by a long way, but William missed the start and couldn?t improve his position.

After two wins, Derek had the cheek to lead Ostergaard in heat 12, but he was passed this time. Glanz beat Tully and we were four down now (though definitely through on aggregate).

We wanted something on the night though, and levelled the scores with a maximum heat 13 advantage from Ryan and William.

Heat 14 was Aaron?s third ride, and Suchanek beat Wethers to give the Racers a 2-point lead into the last race.

We needed a 5-1 from heat 15 to win, and into the first corner our riders looked well placed. However Ostergaard forced into second, and with a brilliant move on the pits corner he used the wide line to swoop to the front.

So Racers won by 2 points, but our mission was more than well achieved.