Rye House Rockets v Edinburgh Monarchs

A 12-point margin didn't seem a great deal to take to Rye House for the second leg of the KO Cup tie, given the strength of the Rockets in their home matches, but obviously no-one told the Scotwaste Monarchs.

It would be hard to think of a more resounding victory, or a more impressive or exciting performance, in our 62 years of existence.

When I say exciting, I don't necessarily mean the quality of racing, because it was too one-sided. But it was thrilling to see our riders surge fearlessly into the first turn, and keep the throttle on for four laps in every heat, while the home men (other than Sundstrom) were tentative.

The pre-match rain which lasted from 5:15 to nearly 6 did have an effect, but it would be wrong to suggest that the track was a muddy mess. It wasn't. In fact to the layman's eye it looked better than the normal Rye House with a bit of grip on the surface. The first and second bend rode fine but it was possible to hit trouble down the other end.

The most remarkable moment was Ryan Fisher's first corner in heat 13 when he stormed round everyone after what had appeared a poor start - a stunning move reminiscent of Rickardsson at Cardiff a few years ago!

It was Ryan along with Tobias Busch who got us off to a tremendous start with a heat one 5-1. Frampton stopped - he wasn't well placed anyway - and Bowen could make no impression. Good to add four to our lead but of course we expected the Rockets to come back hard.

Heat 2 was a really tight first corner, and Kalle was so brave on his first ride at the track to race round the lip of the camber on the first corner to the front.

Max got a point when Kyle Hughes packed up, and it was interesting that the Rockets' handy reserve wasn't looking threatening anyway.

Wolbert and Wethers next, Kevin on his Rye House debut, and lo and behold we were off again for another 5 points! This time home captain Neath dropped out and we could hardly believe what we were seeing here. Nor, no doubt, could the home support.

Linus Sundstrom has been in great form recently and we expected something from him. He rode well in heat 4 - but Andrew Tully rode better! No-one in the PL turns harder than Andrew and he was brilliant in this one, leading all the way with the Swede straining to get near him. Kalle finished third.

Then came the bad news - Andrew hadn't had a dirt deflector on, and all the hard work was wasted as he was excluded. So we led 16-8 when it should have been 18-6.

Fisher flew in heat 5 to win easily, and there was a point for Tobias as Neath's woes continued - he fell off.

Andrew Tully put his disappointment from heat 4 behind him for a super win in heat 6, and the two Ws shared heat 7 behind Sundstrom. 26-16 and no real sign yet of a Rockets' fightback.

Kalle led from the first bend in heat 8, and Tobias was in second going up the back straight. Bowen came under him, putting Tobias in an awkward position on the more difficult bend where he crashed.

He did exactly the right thing though, with Kalle ahead, he jumped up and speedily cleared the track.

Still we led by 10 and next we had a long session of track grading from Len Silver. Perhaps he knew what he was doing, he certainly has enough experience, though it wasn't obvious, and many of the riders were out looking worried. We were also keeping an eye on the sky but the dark clouds that there were didn't seem to be heading our way.

When we finally resumed after a long delay, Tully again rode brilliantly to lead heat 9. It was stopped when Neath fell - what a night he was having - but Andrew did it again in the rerun.

Jordan Frampton finally got going to lead heat 11 from Wolbert and Wethers, but this time Bowen crashed on the problem bend. The Rockets would have been cursing because we took a 5-1 in the rerun with Frampton nowhere, with Kevin doing the fastest time of the night.

16 up, 28 ahead on aggregate, 5 heats to go - all over. So what would we finally score?

In heat 11 we saw the best ride so far from Tobias Busch. Off gate 3, he hit the grippy outside of turn 2 and surged ahead of Sundstrom no less. Fast and steady, it looked like he might get a notable win till the Swede cut past on the inside on the third lap.

Meantime Ryan Fisher was getting into some trouble in third spot, but he held on to ensure a shared race - but Tobias had made another point about what a good signing we seem to have made!

Wolbert looked terrific again in winning heat 12 from Hughes, and this time we had a good ride from Max who headed Chris Neath for all four laps - a 4-2 to Germany!

Next to put on a show was Ryan Fisher, with an absolutely amazing burst round the outside of the first corner to come from nowhere and race down the back straight yards ahead. Nobody saw him after that. Andrew took third behind Sundstrom.

Kalle picked up yet another win in heat 14, and up till this point we had only conceded one race advantage - the dirt deflector race! We did lose another one in the final race, as Kevin missed the gate and Sundstrom won from Kalle.

That was it - an amazing show in which we never lifted our foot off the gas. One of our smallest travelling supports for this awkward fixture saw what was one of our best-ever displays.

Rye House Rockets v Edinburgh Monarchs

Monarchs return to real speedway action tonight in a welcome break from Premier League 'action' when they travel to deepest Hertfordshire to defend a seventeen point KO Cup lead against Len Silver's high flying Rye House Rockets.

Both sides meet on the back of high scoring wins in their last outings but more notice can be taken of the Rye House victory over Workington last Monday than of Monarchs' walkover last night, of which the less said the better. A closer comparison was Edinburgh's previous home win over Scunthorpe.

The match scores were very similar and in both cases the track records were broken by home riders. Edinburgh have the edge in that department with both Kalle Katajisto and Ryan Fisher breaking the previous best Armadale time. The Hoddeston track record of Tai Woffinden was broken by Chris Neath.

However it was the young Swedish 'blonde bombshell', Linus Sundstrom who imperiously went through the card unbeaten in his five rides. The impressive Jordan Frampton who hails from Poole in Dorset followed closely with thirteen points, only losing out to Chris Schramm in Heat 15.

The majority of the other Rockets gave solid support. Third in the all-time Rye points scorers list, skipper Chris Neath scored 8. Their second Swede, Stefan Ekberg, nicknamed the North Star, contributed 7+1. And Luke Bowen, the 23-year-old from Harlow chipped in with 6+2.

As for the reserves, Kyle Hughes who doubles up from the Cobras and who has previously scored 11 against Monarchs, scored 7 from 5 rides. The only down side of a typically solid display in front of their home fans was a single point from Kurt Shields, the young cousin of Aussie Adam Shields after he demolished the fence on the fourth bend.

For Monarchs, their top four are all firing more consistently than they had been and in Kalle Katajisto they have a young reserve who can make the crucial difference in any match. However Max Dilger is still struggling and not too much can be expected from new German signing Tobias Busch in only his second match.

So with two fairly evenly matched teams, home track advantage will weigh strongly in favour of the Rockets as it usually does, as evidenced by their unbeaten home record this season so far. But the Hoddeston track is almost the same size as the Scotwaste Arena so it should not be too alien to Matthew Wethers' side.

The Rockets will look to get off to a blistering start, so Monarchs will have to try to contain them in order to preserve as much of a points cushion as possible for as long as possible. Gating will be all important on a track which is usually as slick as the Scotwaste Arena is grippy.

On this visit, Monarchs are not looking for an away win, but to defend a healthy 17-point lead. They will still have to be on top form in front of a very vocal and partisan Hertfordshire crowd, but man for man they can be more than a match for their opposite numbers. It's likely to be a very close one!

Probable line-ups

Rye House: Chris Neath (c), Stefan Ekberg, Jordan Frampton, Luke Bowen, Linus Sundstrom, Kurt Shields, Kyle Hughes.

Edinburgh: Ryan Fisher, Tobias Busch, Kevin Wolbert, Matthew Wethers (c), Andrew Tully, Max Dilger, Kalle Katajisto.