EXCELLENT WIN KICKS OFF THE LEAGUE CAMPAIGN

NEWS Thursday 29th April 2010, 1:24am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs gained an excellent 46-44 away win at Redcar tonight, inspired by a superb 15 point maximum by Ryan Fisher but with all of the team contributing important and well-won points.

After last Friday's debacle, this was the speedway version of ? Pick Yourself Up, Dust Yourself Off, and Start All Over Again!

Some may say that Redcar have been toiling this year, and they have ? BUT they have won twice away, and the rider who has been the biggest problem for them, Tomas Suchanek (barely scoring a point before tonight) was mounted on a new engine and scored a well deserved dozen. But we still won!

The most pleasing thing was that we kept our tails up throughout the night in a very close contest, and when the really vital points were up for grabs towards the end, we were the side who showed the greater will-to-win.

As well as Fisher's brilliant wins in heats 13 and 15, the point by Tully ahead of Sanchez (13) and the win by Wethers over top Bear Wilson (14) were essential.

Ryan Fisher said ?I had the power I needed tonight. The engine I used was the same as last time but with a new magic box, that did the trick!?

The American was completely dominant in all his heats, and did particularly well in the final heat. He didn't gate all that quickly but swept round the boards and blasted to the front up the back straight.

But it was a team effort. Kevin Wolbert had two whopping wins by massive distances in his 10 points. Andrew Tully struggled from the gate again but made sure he got that heat 13 third.

Matthew Wethers hit the tapes in his first ride but then joined Kevin for a vital 5-1 in heat 7, in which he had an excellent battle with Sanchez.

Kalle Katajisto didn't really have the engine he wanted, a legacy of Friday's blowup, but he looked as though he was just gasping to go faster. Even so his 5+3 were important.

Our old mate Byron Bekker got a decent second in heat 2 though he didn't really keep it up.

And I have kept Jozsef Tabaka to last because he did very well and was unlucky not to get more. He beat Havvy in heat 1, and he was desperately unlucky in heat 5 ? twice.

At the first attempt, Jozsef and Ryan made the start. For no obvious reason, except perhaps that Wilson may have pulled back from the tapes, the heat was stopped.

Next, Swales made the start but Tabaka was working his way round him ? only to be forced wider and wider by the home reserve until Jozsef spun off. At worst it should have been all four back but our man was excluded ? a really bad error.

So full marks to everyone on a night of unpleasant drizzle which was never heavy enough to threaten a call-off. Exactly 52 weeks since our last Redcar win, a job very well done and a big boost to us all.

Full Result Details