INTO THE FINAL AGAIN

NEWS Friday 9th October 2015, 11:59pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs qualified very comfortably in the end for their third successive Premier Championship final with a 58-32 win over Peterborough, making it 102-78 on aggregate.

So it wasn’t even close, and yet after the disappointment of losing the KO Cup last week, there was an air of unease hanging over Armadale – might it happen again? Peterborough seemed so confident.

As it turned out the confidence was misplaced and it was our restored full seven who proved to be vastly superior. Kevin Wolbert was back and any fears about his fitness were unfounded as he dropped just one point in five rides.

That took the pressure off Sam Masters and Erik Riss to deliver perfect performances, and both looked more relaxed as they managed two wins each and good scores. Justin Sedgmen had a couple of slips but was still fine, and of course that fellow Cook was on a different planet as usual. There will never be such a thing as an invincible speedway rider but at times the possibility of defeat for Cook doesn't seem worth considering.

It was also excellent to see Max Clegg turn in some good rides, a win from the back in heat 2 and an even better paid win in heat 14 as he went round Simon Lambert in the latter stages of the heat.

Peterborough were allowed only two race wins, and the Panthers probably disappointed their travelling support. Their best rider was Michael Palm Toft, who passed Justin Sedgmen in heat one and was a race winner in heat 11. He was consistent throughout.

Ben Barker was as belligerent as ever, pressing Sam Masters very hard in heat 4 and in heat 9 almost pushing Erik Riss onto the centre green. Eventually though, Ben petered out with a last in heat 15.

Anders Thomsen and Emil Grondal were expected to be major threats but they were not at all. Their captain Simon Lambert led heat 7 after what appeared to be a pretty blatant jumped start but he was eventually overhauled, and other than that Simon’s own assessment that Armadale is not a favourite track with him proved correct.

The other Panthers’ race winner was their guest Rohan Tungate who showed in heat 5 what he is capable of when he gets clear. He tried hard to upset Craig Cook in heat 13 but finished up falling off himself.

Monarchs steadily piled up points and while there might have been tension on the terraces until aggregate victory was assured, realistically it wasn’t in much doubt from an early stage.

In the other semi-final, Glasgow seem to have taken the upper hand against Somerset with only a 6-point deficit, but we will see what happens on Sunday.

Full Result Details