SHOCK DEFEAT BY REDCAR

NEWS Friday 13th April 2012, 11:53pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs unexpectedly went down by 42-48 at home to Redcar tonight, and while the home side were on the wrong end of two of the most appalling refereeing decisions you could ever wish to see, there was no concealing that it was a desperately disappointing show.

After two good home displays against Glasgow and Newcastle, Monarchs just didn’t come up to the mark tonight. Theo Pijper was again in superb form, and Craig Cook was desperately unlucky, but each of Matthew Wethers, Micky Dyer and Derek Sneddon had their worst nights of the season and that led to the home loss.

Redcar were without Justin Sedgmen (ill) and had a weakish rider replacement facility so this made the defeat all the more surprising.

For Matthew there has to be some concern, as his belief that he had found and sorted his problems was not borne out. He seems currently to lack any speed. Micky Dyer gated poorly and never regained position in any of his heats, and Derek Sneddon didn’t come good till his final race.

The refereeing by Darren Hartley caused a great deal of consternation. Heats 4 and 12 were the problem races, and heat 4 was especially significant. In this Craig Cook made the start, and led Aaron Summers down the back straight and into the pits corner. Craig never veered from his mid track line and was never less than a yard in front, but Aaron went for the outside pass and spun off.

No-one could believe the decision to exclude Cook, nor the reaction of Summers who squared up to Cook as he came round after the incident. Perhaps that influenced the referee, and in spite of viewing the incident again on film he did not change his decision.

The other astounding decision was heat 12 in which Max Dilger clattered into the side of Charles Wright, who had been dicing with Mark Jones. The lights went on instantly and most people assumed this was to exclude Dilger – but no, Wright’s blue light came on. He got up and ran to query the decision at the box, but nothing changed.

This prevented Monarchs taking the lead and kept the scores level. Thereafter the Bears proved the stronger willed over the closing heats, taking a 5-1 in heat 13 and a 4-2 in heat 14 to ensure victory.

The final race was the best of the night, a breathtaking tussle between Summers and Pijper with the home man winning to deny Bears the fourth point.

Monarchs will now be looking to improve their form away at Newcastle on Sunday and at home to section favourites Workington at Armadale next Friday.