FINE SECOND IN THE FOURS

NEWS Sunday 15th August 2010, 1:59am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs turned in an excellent showing at Peterborough in the Fours, just making the final on a countback, and then coming a worthy second to the deserving winners Birmingham.

It was an enjoyable event with a pretty decent crowd by recent standards. Our foursome was very competitive and would surely have won the second semi with a bit to spare were it not for a lost chain for Kalle (heat 2) and a questionable exclusion for Ryan (heat 5).

However Kalle's hard fought second place in heat 8 left us level with Scunthorpe and a point behind Somerset. We made the final ? because we had more second places than the Scorpions!

The racing during the semis was not all that good, on a track which had been flooded early in the day. The inside line was predominant.

However the final was quite a contrast with some really thrilling stuff and plenty of overtakes on the inside and out. Monarchs played their full part and all of them had some great tussles.

At heat 6 we held the joint lead with Birmingham, but from that point the Brummies pulled clear. Richard Sweetman won heats 8 and 9, both excellent races, from Tully and Wethers, and when Aaron Summers added a win over Andrew in heat 10 we were four points adrift.

Kalle was in the race for the second top scorers, and in spite of a big effort he was pushed to the back by the more experienced trio of Franc, Parker and Johnston. That meant the Brummies were champions.

They finished in style as Jason Lyons passed Ryan on the opening lap to gain revenge for Ryan's win in heat 6. These two finished joint top scorers in the final with 8 each.

We had a good support there and everyone was very happy with the team's performance.