THROUGH TO THE LEAGUE CUP FINAL

NEWS Thursday 3rd September 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We comfortably qualified for the League Cup Final even though we went down 52-38 at Ipswich tonight. We had secured the qualification by heat 12.

It was not one of our strongest away performances by any means, and the absence of Craig Cook had a lot to do with the fact that we only managed five race winners.

Having said that our qualification was never in doubt as we held the Witches over the early races and took the lead in heat five when Gino Manzares packed up while leading. That gifted a 5-1 to Justin Sedgmen and Ryan Fisher, and just to add to the Witches' frustration they had Cameron Heeps fall in the next race when on a 5-1 with Danny King.

These incidents took any steam there might have been out of the Ipswich challenge.

We did enough to get through, and switched off a bit after qualification was assured. Kevin Wolbert was our steadiest performer with some good work on the first corner helping him to two race wins and two seconds.

Sam Masters found the bumpy track hard to handle with his hand injury giving him a bit of bother, but still scored 8 points from his first three rides.

Justin Sedgmen started well but admitted he suffered from not having raced for almost a fortnight. "I need to get some practise," he admitted, "I'm just not confident enough with the lack of racing."

Both reserves battled away, with Max Clegg particularly riding some good lines and looking quick.

Ryan Fisher came in at short notice as our guest but lacked speed. He did hold position well when challenged in the early races. He said "When I got the call I tried to get my best engine back from the tuner, but he couldn't do it. My engine was just too flat."

For Erik Riss it was probably his worst night of the season, until he got a decent second place in his last ride.

Ipswich were in good form with King and Covatti outstanding. They mst rue their missed opportunities this season as they probably won't make the Playoffs.

Now it is on to the KO Cup semi final against Newcastle on Friday night, for which we hope Craig Cook will be fit.

Full Result Details