A WIN OVER THE DIAMONDS ON A DAMP NIGHT

NEWS Friday 8th May 2015, 11:59pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It drizzled a lot at Armadale tonight, making conditions difficult and having an effect on the crowd, but the Border Roofing Monarchs managed to edge their way ahead for an eventual 52-40 victory over Newcastle.

The Diamonds will never be easy opposition, and it was actually three successive 4-2s in the first three races which put Monarchs on the road to victory. Thereafter we had difficulty shaking them off and some of our gating was not up to its usual standard.

Steve Worrall and to a lesser extent Lewis Kerr gave us a gating lesson and it was just as well that Sam Masters was rock solid, dropping his only point in heat 15 after winning his previous four races.

It was only with a 5-1 in heat 14 that we ensured victory, this advantage being recorded by Justin Sedgmen and Max Clegg. That was our first maximum advantage of the night, unusually.

With Erik Riss still out (hoping to return next week) the reserves were very busy again. A dozen rides returned 13 points plus 2 bonus after a lot of hard work for Clegg and Branford. Both took some good points and also threw some points away, continually battling with Simon Nielsen who probably earned a similar report for the visitors!

Our middle pair of Kevin Wolbert and Justin Sedgmen didn’t gate as well as usual (or were Newcastle just extra sharp?) but 19 points between them was a reasonable return.

Craig Cook had declared himself fit to ride during the day but it was a mixed night for Cookie. He won heat 4 in routine manner, then in heat 7 he eased Steve Worrall off his line and brought through Max Clegg for what seemed a certain 5-1 – until Craig unaccountable fell when well ahead, leaving Max to take the 3 points to retain an 8-point lead.

As if disgusted with himself Craig then pulled off the ride of the night to brilliantly catch and pass Kerr in heat 11 in slippery conditions. He then made a fair mess of heat 13 and eventually pulled up at the back.

Steve Worrall made a great return with a score of 16+1 including 3 race wins and a 4-point TR. For the other ex-Monarch Christian Henry it was a shambles of a night with various ways of failing to finish and in that he was joined by Lewis Rose, who amazingly has never scored a point at Armadale.

It’s never easy to beat Newcastle at Armadale though so all things considered, it was an acceptable performance.

Full Result Details