BAD DAY IN THE WEST – AGAIN

NEWS Sunday 29th April 2012, 8:07pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

On another depressing day at Ashfield, the Scotwaste Monarchs lost the match 52-41, but more importantly they lost two riders in a disastrous heat 8.

Derek Sneddon has a dislocated shoulder, and Charles Wright suffered back pains though this is not thought to be serious. They had made the gate together in heat 8 but Charles hit something on the first turn, straightened up and rammed Derek, with both riders caught in the melee with their machines.

The incident probably did not cost us a win on the day, but it may well have cost us a point as a likely 5-1 became a 1-5, and of course we lost the two riders who had been going well up to that point.

Later on, after some much-needed track grading, the circuit was slightly smoother and Craig Cook had two powerful wins in the two fastest times of the day. Theo Pijper added a win in heat 12.

The track was in poor condition in the early stages, but for the first seven heats all of the riders kept a respectful distance from each other as they struggled round. We trailed 24-18 after seven races, the only misfortune having come when Craig Cook's silencer broke away after he snapped a bracket. This he put down to track conditions.

Then came the heat 8 disaster, and after that the end could not come quickly enough.

Charles had won heat 2 and Derek had taken two second places early on. Theo and Matthew were in decent enough form but it was another inexplicably bad display from Friday's maximum man Andrew Tully, and Micky Dyer was completely at sea.

As for the racing, there were two passes almost simultaneously in heat 10 as Screen passed Pijper and Wethers passed Campton. That was pretty much that.

So it was another afternoon to forget at Ashfield and we wait to see what kind of side we can put together for the Berwick matches next weekend.

Full Result Details