AMAZINGLY THEY'VE DONE IT AGAIN!

NEWS Sunday 9th August 2015, 8:19pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After a tremendous result last night it might have seemed too much to hope that we could get much more than a point at Peterborough but we should have more faith in the Border Roofing Monarchs who came away with a 49-41 win, another four points and a table-topping position.

There was it has to be said a little bit more good fortune on our side this time, as Robert Lambert crashed heavily in heat 11 and missed his last two rides.

But it was again a great display with our top three superb, and Erik Riss especially deserving praise for an exceptional heat 14 win riding four laps out wide.

Today's haul for Messers Cook, Sedgmen and Wolbert was 40 points including 10 race wins, amazing for a team lacking its no. 2 rider. Today (unlike Friday) this was balanced up by the absence of Ostergaard though their returning Dane Emile Grondal was really impressive.

The reserves were outscored today 9-3 with Max Clegg having probably his poorest match so far. Rob Branford battled away and had some interesting tussles.

We started with a 4-2, Sedgmen working hard to hold off the hard-charging Lambert who had just stopped Craig Cook rounding him early in the race.

Our reserves were well beaten in heat two, but Kevin took the third heat against the potentially dangerous Blackbird / Palm Toft pair.

Cook beat Lambert in heat 4 in which both rode as rider replacement, and Craig just made it back out again to team up with Sedgy for a 5-1 in heat 5 - what a pair! The allowance being given for riders with two on the trot seemed a bit miserly.

Wolbert got in front of Lambert in heat 6 but could not stop the youngster barging through, and disappointingly enough Grondal also nipped through to put Panthers back n front.

Much better from Kevin in the next one as he headed Blackbird. Erik had started with two lasts and we hoped he would get going.

Sedgmen made his worst start in heat 8 and finished up tussling for third with Luke Bowen, guesting for the Panthers, and simultaneously looking out for Branford just in front of them. Grondal was the race winner.

Sedgmen was away again though for a win in heat 9, so we were 28-26 down at that point.

Heat 10 looked a cast-iron home 5-1 with Lambert and Grondal well clear of the Germans, until on lap three Lambert went far too quickly on the 3rd/4th bend, or maybe picked up too much grip, and crashed heavily into the fence.

The ambulance appeared but thankfully wasn't needed as Robert rose and walked off. It was announced a bit later that he would not be fit to continue and so missed heats 13 and 15.

Cook and Sedgmen soared away for another 5-1 (six of these over the weekend) in heat 11, and Wolbert pulled off an excellent first corner move to take heat 12 from Blackbird.

We were two up now and Cook swept round Grondal to go ahead in heat 13, with Riss simultaneously rounding Bowen who had replaced Lambert.

Four up with a crucial heat 14 coming up, and great stuff from Riss to hit the front and hold off Palm Toft for one of his best wins so far.

So in the circumstances we would have needed to concede a 5-1 for Panthers to snatch a draw. No-one felt that was likely and in fact our great pair of Cook and Sedgmen again scored a maximum advantage, comfortably in the end.

Lambert in fact would have to have won heats 13 and 15 for a draw, which even for this precocious talent didn't seem on the cards against the riders we were fielding.

Now we look forward to Tuesday's Sky TV clash at Somerset. What on earth are we going to do there?

Full Result Details