Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

REPORT Saturday 11th August 2012, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

This was Edinburgh’s fourth match in four days, against a team with plenty of knowledge of Armadale.

However the Scotwaste Monarchs have grown in stature to a remarkable extent over the last week, and inspired by Craig Cook and Jozsef Tabaka they simply took the Diamonds apart.

For the visitors, Mark Lemon struggled but the others appeared to be riding well enough. They just could not cope with the onslaught from the Monarchs, determined to complete the week in style.

The two maximum men were magnificent, in different ways. The astonishing Cook scored his third 15 point maximum in three days, something I doubt any Edinburgh rider has ever done, and he won all his heats by massive distances.

Tabaka’s gating was nothing special but he was so fast and smooth he simply sailed past the opposition. In heat 7 the Diamonds pair had gated, and while Andrew Tully was battling to get by, Tabaka glided inside everyone, one by one. In heat 11 he swept round the outside of Stuart Robson, then did it again in the rerun in spite of considerable efforts by the Newcastle no. 1 to force him off his line.

Once again in heat 14 a poor start was soon rectified and he was allowed to sit out the final race to celebrate his first maximum, a truly memorable one.

The rest of the side wasn’t far behind. Theo Pijper and Matthew Wethers were a rock-solid pair, and had actually gated on Robson in his TR outing in heat 5. The heat was stopped though and Robson won the rerun with Wethers suffering a machine problem.

Andrew Tully was involved in some of the most exciting racing (and there was quite a bit), especially two enthralling battles with Robson.

Derek Sneddon was as determined as ever, though he did lose the lead in heat 8 to a fine ride from Claes Nedermark, one of only two Diamonds’ race winners.

That leaves Marcel Helfer, and when your lowest scorer has started the night with two impressive paid wins then you know tour team is going well.

The only downside of the night was a heavy crash by Nedermark in heat 11, trying to make headway from the back on his TR ride.

Full Result Details