POINT JUST MISSED AGAIN

NEWS Sunday 15th September 2013, 9:16pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

For the second away match running we narrowly missed picking up a point, going down 49-41 at Newcastle in spite of another paid maximum for Craig Cook.

We actually led the match early on and were still two points up after heat 8, but the Diamonds have a strength in depth which makes them formidable opponents.

Cook deserved better backing and when the chips were down, we just could not find the points we needed. We might well have done better with a full side, because although guest Aaron Summers scored 8 from his first three rides, he fell away disappointingly with three last places.

Rider replacement for Claus achieved very little, a win for Aaron in heat 6 in a rerun heat (against Worrall) but other than that, no opposition riders beaten.

Craig Cook was exceptional again in scoring his fourth successive maximum at Premier level. He team rode Derek Sneddon home in heat 11 for a 5-1 which briefly raised hopes, he missed the start in heat 13 but still swept past the home pair early in the race, and he took gate four in the last race to give partner Summers the best possible chance of scoring the important point.

Derek Sneddon had his best away score for a while without looking either quick or comfortable. In the opening race when the track was tricky, he passed both Kerr and Worrall to get us off to a great start with a 5-1.

That continued in heat two won by Max Fricke with Liam Carr taking third after Schramm fell. Thereafter Max had a mixed evening, taking another couple of second places but also three lasts.

Jozsef tried hard as always but didn't achieve much. He was excluded in heat three for bringing down Andrew Tully who had slowed on the corner, and he had another exclusion in heat seven when it looked as though Schramm had tipped him off on the first bend.

But Jozsef's gating is showing no signs of consistent improvement, and the heat 14 1-5 with Max Fricke was especially disappointing.

Heats 9 and 10 were killer races, both 1-5 losses, and in heat 9 both Derek and Max were passed by Lindgren. But the real match winner for the Diamonds was Lewis Kerr who took one heavy fall, but came on strongly with paid 9 from his last three rides. What a find he is.

We had no back-up men of that standard, even though we had by far the star of the meeting (as usual).

Thankfully Cook is now available for us at Workington tomorrow with his Belle Vue match postponed, and we also have Theo Pijper and Claus Vissing back.