Wolverhampton Wolves v Edinburgh Monarchs

We have not made the Elite League (did we think we would?) but we did leave a good impression behind us after an excellent match at Monmore Green.

A scoreline of 39-53 away to an Elite side is a good effort, and that is from our team who are more than a bit battered at the end of a long hard season.

We started as on Friday with a 1-5, William not too far behind the Wolves but James Brundle tailed off.

James perked up in heat 2 though to get between the home reserves, and it did look on the first corner as though Aaron Summers might go round the field until he stopped on the back straight. But at least we had taken a point from a Wolf!

Things quickly got much better. A fierce first turn in heat 3 took Ryan and Andrew ahead of Chris Neath who was given all the r/r rides, with guest Lewis Bridger well back. Andrew was quick on his first Monmore ride, so quick he nearly ran into Ryan, but they completed the job and scored a very pleasing 5-1.

We lost a 5-1 in heat 4 though and Matthew looked as out of sorts as he had on Friday.

Andrew took the r/r ride for us in heat 5 but missed the start this time, but William contributed to our ?points won? total by following Bridger home ahead of Neath.

Heat 6 had to be seen to be believed. James Brundle has surely never ridden better as he passed and re-passed with Wolves? no. 1 Fredrik Lindgren, and amazingly came out on top after a marvellous outside corner on the pits bend.

That was great, and following that we watched with delight as Andrew and Ryan again got the better of the Wolves at the first turn of heat 7 and took 5 against Monberg!

That made it 23-19, a real surprise at that stage.

Ryan came in to heat 8 as r/r but Klindt was gating well and led him home. David Howe packed up in third to gift a point to Aaron.

Matthew again could do nothing in heat 9 and James Brundle took the point behind Neath and Bridger.

The top pairings of each side met in heat 10 and we had a quality race won by Howe with Fisher chasing hard, and Tully on the tail of Freddie Lindgren.

We shared heat 11 behind Monberg, and put Ryan out on a TR in heat 12 with the gap now 10 points.

Again he chased hard but again Klindt was impressive and held on to win, securing a 4-4 for his team.

The next three heats were all excellent ones. William rode perhaps his best race since coming back from injury in heat 13, and yet only managed a point. He made a great start from between the two Wolves and went ahead up the back straight. He was really throwing the bike into the turns, but Monberg managed to cleverly edge his way up the inside off turn two on the second lap.

It seemed William would get second but he was pipped by Lindgren who just caught him on the line.

Heat 14 was even better, a 4-lap thriller between Tully and Bridger. Andrew rode the inside, Lewis the outside, in an enthralling battle which at one point saw Bridger hit Tully?s back wheel down the back straight.

On the final lap Bridger?s wide surges just took him ahead to win a classic by a wheel.

We had another heat win to celebrate in the final race. Ryan and Andrew again worked a superb first turn and went ahead of Monberg, who battled back past Andrew in a great three-man tussle. Fisher stayed ahead and we took the 4-2 to finish on a highly creditable 39 points.