FOUR POINTS AT PLYMOUTH

NEWS Saturday 18th May 2013, 11:04pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs performed brilliantly to add four points to last night's three with a 51-42 win at Plymouth, where we had not previously managed to take a single point.

The whole seven rode well, we had ten race winners and only five lasts, and never lost the lead we gained in heat 3.

Perhaps special mention should be reserved for Max Fricke, especially after a disappointing home meeting last night. He bounced right back in spite of a fall in the first running of heat 3, took a paid win there and added a match-winning three points with his first race win in heat 14.

Craig Cook was caught out at the tapes in heat one, and just managed to grab third place off the last corner, but thereafter was at his brilliant best. He lifted a couple of times from the start later on but was always powerful enough round the opening lap to dominate the heats.

Theo Pijper and Claus Vissing rode like the heat leaders they are and won two races each. Theo's heat 12 win over Kurtz and Lemon was especially vital at a stage when Plymouth seemed to have a chance of getting back into the match.

Jozsef Tabaka held third for most of this heat but came off trying to squeeze past Lemon, and the wrist injury he picked up kept him out of heat 14. That is our only concern post-match though Jozsef has headed off for Hungary with Claus, hoping to get there in time for a meeting tomorrow.

Mitchell Davey was again a surprise packet, taking a good third in heat 2 then jetting from the start to lead heat 6. This was stopped when Schramm crashed trying to pass Claus for second, and should surely have been awarded.

Undaunted Mitchell made the gate again in the rerun and led till the last lap, only to make an error which dropped him back to third.

Derek Sneddon scored important points and rode much better than in recent away matches, and as stated earlier, Max resumed his upward path with some good heats.

All in all, if Jozsef has escaped injury, it could not have gone a lot better at the St Boniface Arena. They have a friendly setup there and a good atmosphere, and their team isn't far away from being a good one - though Kling was again disappointing.

Proctor, Lemon, Gathercole and Kurtz took a lot of subduing but our men were good enough to do the job.

Full Result Details