Heat 7 5-1 coming up

Down But Not Out

REPORT Thursday 21st September 2017, 10:49pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was a case of so near yet so far for the Parsons Peebles Monarchs this evening as they performed admirably and did well going down 50-40 to the Ipswich Witches in the 1st leg of the SGB Championship Play Off Semi Final.

The Monarchs had headed south hoping to repeat their performance from the end of July when they pipped the hosts by a point in a pulsating fixture this time Ipswich on top form and well aided by guest Mason Campton the Parsons Peebles Monarchs battled hard to keep the scores tight.

On a night where gating was absolutely paramount both teams had their moments but over the piece a 10 point deficit probably flatters the Witches although both teams will look to points thrown away or situations they could have improved upon.

For the Monarchs they were poorly served by rider replacement for Mark Riss which only gained 2 points a score he would surely have bested and they were left a little perplexed by Erik Riss’s exclusion in heat 14. Riss and Nathan Greaves tangled going into the first bend with referee Barbara Horley throwing out our man. Horley’s explanation for the decision was that Erik had moved across into Greaves although quite why he would do that when Greaves was clearly a wheel ahead is questionable.

The Monarchs were led from the front by captain Sam Masters returning to his best with a 14 point haul. The Aussie was happy with his scoring and believes the tie is on a knife edge saying “I was happy with how I scored tonight; I only got the engine back today after blowing it at Swindon last week so I was happy with how it went. I think it’s all to go for and we can pull ten back. I’m pretty confident we can do that especially if the reserves ride well we definitely have it in us and I’ll be firing the boys up to go out there and do it at Armadale.”

Unfortunately on the night Masters did not quite have the heat winning back up for the Monarchs to fire to victory with only Riss also taking the chequered flag in what was an excellent victory over a strong looking Danny King and Rory Schlein pairing in heat 6 and while the Monarchs were keeping it close there was always a feeling that this lack of heat winners may come back to bite them in the end and this was to prove the case as going into heat 13 only 4 down the wheels came off a little with a tapes to flag 5-1 for that King and Schlein pairing followed by a 4-2 for the hosts after that Riss exclusion in the penultimate race.

Masters was to stop the bleeding taking the flag in the last race leaving the 2nd leg all to play for at Armadale on Friday evening to see who can progress to the final and a crack at the title.