Workington Comets v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Saturday 22nd August 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was a long night at Workington on Saturday, over three hours with less than 20 minutes of actual racing. We left with a point which was more than we expected but less than we should have got.

Why did it take so long? It?s the worst way of helping fans to enjoy their night at the speedway.

A major and genuine reason for delay was that Ian Thomas took an unfortunate tumble. Ian has had his health problems recently, and it was absolutely right to be careful. It did take ages though.

Secondly after the first running of heat 15, Adrian Rymel was allowed time to sort his machinery. Again, no problem, because the Czech had laid down to avoid running over Matthew who had fallen off (in a match-winning position).

But we also saw a few episodes of track grading with tractors circling again and again in a ridiculous manner, the worst one being between heats 13 and 14 when Andre Compton had just suffered an engine failure and was due out in the next race. That is the rub of the green and does not entitle the rider time to sort his machine.

This is absolutely the referee?s responsibility and goodness knows why Margaret Vardy sat up in the ref?s box and allowed it to happen. In fact it made no difference because Compton came out on a Rymel machine in the end, but it just made everyone?s night all the more boring.

On track, a lot of it was what we have come to expect. Processional racing, with the home heat leaders gating and winning.

They didn?t win heat 1. Ryan did, as he has a few times, with the Raj third and Phil Morris falling at the back. It looked simple but he was off to hospital with a shoulder problem.

As they already had a NL rider at no. 6 (Craig Cook was ill) and were using rider replacement for Richard Lawson, we should have been right in there.

We lost two 4-2s (heat 2 being a particularly disappointing result)but took the lead in heat 4 via a 5-1. Again Comets were unlucky here as Compton stopped while leading, but it did at least give Kevin a win in his first away ride for us.

Three 3-3s followed with Max gaining a decent point by fighting back to repass John Branney. We then took a 4-2 in heat 8, failing to hold on to a 5-1 position when Branney passed Rajkowski.

Heat 9 was the highlights of the night as W?lbert wound up to challenge and eventually pass Rymel with a brilliant outside move. It?s hard to remember a better ride by an Edinburgh rider at Derwent Park.

We were then six up but failed to subdue John Branney as we needed to do, losing 4-2s in heats 10 and 12 with Dilger and Summers recording fourth places. Workington would then have taken the lead ? but Compton stopped again when on a 5-1 with Doolan in heat 13.

There followed that appalling track grading session, then Matthew beat Compton to give us a 44-40 lead. In the last heat decider, Matthew was splitting Doolan and Rymel when he crashed, and all we were able to finish up with was a draw.