Joint men - or boys - of the match Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

Comfortable Win In The End

REPORT Saturday 30th July 2016, 1:32am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

With two such strange and unrepresentative lineups no-one was quite sure what would happen at Armadale tonight, but three guys who were in no doubt were our own trio of captain Kevin Wolbert plus reserves Max Clegg and Dan Bewley.

They all scored double figures – yes our two young reserves both finished on 11 – and that inspired the team to a 56-36 triumph.

Team manager Alex Harkess said “I wasn’t sure what to expect and hadn’t been looking forward to the match with four of our usual team missing. I went very well though, the guests did fine, Kevin gave a captain’s display and the reserves were simply brilliant.”

It didn’t feel that comfortable for much of the night, even though the Border Roofing Monarchs led from heat two onwards. And when a Sheffield 5-1 in heat 10 cut the gap to 8 it did seem the home side might still have a fight on their hands. However they took advantages in four of the remaining six races to run out easy winners.

Heats 13 and 14 were two of the best of the night. Kevin Wolbert worked his way round the outside line in heat 13, pressing race leader Kyle Howarth while holding off Ricky Wells on the inside, before finding the drive he needed off the final corner to burst to the front for a brilliant win.

The following race was a four-lap battle between Ulrich Ostergaard and Richie Worrall, taken at the last gasp by Ostergaard in his best ride of the night.

Ostergaard and his fellow guests Steve Worrall and Michael Palm Toft did fine. But really the story of the night centred round Max Clegg and Dan Bewley who took three race wins each and gated better than they have ever done. Max won heat 2 from the back and later added heats 7 and 12, while Dan shot out of the traps for wins in heats 4, 6 and 8, a tremendous mid-match boost for their team.

They thoroughly deserved to share the Monarch of the Match award chosen by Bob and Morag Miller.