Edinburgh Monarchs v Redcar Bears

Back to normal at Armadale with an enjoyable match in the sunshine, and a sound Monarchs' performance.

We weren't brilliant but we were OK, and after the week we've just had that will do OK!

There was a good crowd too, suggesting again that the weather is the most important factor in whether people turn out or not, and of course a good night virtually ensures some decent racing.

Part of the reason for the good racing was Monarchs' terrible gating! Nothing new there, only Derek Sneddon made decent starts and all the others had to utilise their overtaking skills, none more so that Henrik Moller who had a major second bend problem, but showed enough grit and skill to come from the back.

After a Havelock heat 1 stroll, Derek made a good job of heat 2 by passing Hargreaves, the first sign that he was back on song. A strong sign also though.that Sean was going to have one of his very bad ones.

Henrik made a complete mess of the first bend in heat 3, handing the lead to Suchanek with Giffard behind him. Matt Wethers was soon through to the front, and Henrik also recovered to pass both visiting riders.

Kevin Little won heat 4 fairly easily from William who didn't look all that quick. After another easy win, we finally pulled away with a fast start by Derek and a good outside sweep by Theo to score a maximum over Kevin Little.

Immediately we shed a couple of points, in fact Kerr and Suchanek may have scored a maximum but for a last bend error by the Czech which gifted William two points.

We had some good fortune in heat 8. Kerr fell on the second bend, not unconnected to a wobble by Henrik, but the American was excluded. In the rerun Henrik came off and needed attention, but was allowed back in the rerun in which we scored 5 points!

Little won heat 9, but a heat 10 5-1 over Suchanek gave Havvy a TR chance.

We brought in Derek and he outgated the ex-World Champ! This gave William a chance to get clear before Havvy got into second and gave chase, to no avail. With Sneddon beating Kerr, that was a 4-4.

The bonus was not out of the question, but heat 12 was a blow. Suchanek and Hargreaves led for much of the race before Matthew split them, but this time Derek was out of it.

We shared heat 13 and stopped TR Little scoring anything, and just to keep that tiny chance of the bonus alive, we took 5 from heat 14 with some good work by Derek and Henrik. What we then needed was a heat 15 5-1 and a win in a run-off, but that was soon out of the question as Havelock raced away for his fourth win.

The damage was done down at Redcar, and the home performance was a reasonable one.