3 Points At Scunthorpe

REPORT Sunday 17th July 2016, 11:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After a tremendous match of cut-and-thrust racing at Scunthorpe, Border Roofing Monarchs took a last-heat 5-0 to run out winners by 45-44.

Of course it's not an entirely satisfactory way to finish a match but these things happen. Scorpions held the upper hand in the first running of the last race but Lewis Kerr fell after Ryan Douglas locked up. The next time Erik Riss gated and Sam Masters had just squeezed ahead of Douglas when the home man ran into the back of him and cartwheeled off his bike.

That left Riss and Masters to complete the near-formality of the 5-0 for victory.

Monarchs gave a most tenacious display with everyone picking up important points. Gate four generally held an advantage but it was difficult to predict which lines were best to ride. There was certainly a lot of good racing and it's a match worth going through heat by heat.

Sam took advantage of a mistake by Douglas (who hit a wet patch) to win heat one with a good point for Mark Riss over Wilkinson.

Mitchell Davey was standing in for Dan Bewley, and he rode very well to take second in heat two as we shared the heat.

The next two were also shared behind Kerr and Auty though it took our heat four pair of Wolbert and Davey the full race to catch young Josh Bailey.

Heat five was another drawn one with Sam getting the advantage of gate four.

Kevin was stuck on gate one for heat six and though he held second for s bit, he could not hold off Ryan Douglas. The 5-1 gave Scorpions the lead for the first time.

We got it back right away in heat 7, a great race with Erik Riss, Fisher, Auty and Palm Toft in close proximity throughout.

Mark Riss made a thrilling effort to pass Palm Toft in heat 8, just missing out as the Dane managed to block him on each straight.

We lost the lead again in heat 9 as Kevin found Kerr and Wilkinson too hot to handle.

There were two big tussles in heat ten, with Erik taking advantage of gate 4 and just holding off Palm Toft, while Fisher lost third to Douglas then regained it with a wild pass after lifting off the second bend.

Sam worked so hard to get ahead in heat 11 then unfortunately straightened on the third bend of lap three and brought down Auty. He had to be excluded but gave Josh a lift back to the pits!

We were now 35-31 down and up against it as Kerr led heat 12. Max Clegg though had a great ride in the inside line, edging closer and getting a narrow verdict on the line! With Erik ahead of the dangerous Palm Toft we got a surprise 4-2.

Heat 13 was obviously a big one. Kevin had not had a great night but this time he had gate four and went ahead. There was a titanic passing and re-passing battle between Masters and Douglas with the home man getting second and a sporting handshake afterwards.

Ryan was stuck on gate one for heat 14 but made a good start, only to try to head for the dirt and lock up badly. So we were 40-44 down going into that extraordinary last heat.

Scunthorpe have protested about the eligibility of Mitchell Davey to ride at no. 7 but our management believe this will be over-ruled.

Full Result Details