Rye House Rockets v Edinburgh Monarchs

No-one present at this match is ever likely to forget it, not for the quality of the racing but for the drama, especially over the final three races, as we managed with just four scorers to take our second win of the season at Rye House.

It was always likely to be close, but we had to work very hard to ensure that we stayed in touch. Rockets took the lead right from the start as Sundstrom, fit again, led all the way from Ryan Fisher, and Tobias Busch didn?t reproduce his earlier Hoddesdon form.

Kalle cut through the field for an easy heat 2 win, with Cal falling and remounting.

We levelled in heat 3 as Ryan took the first rider replacement ride. We were on a 5-1 in the early stages but a wide sweep from Neath took him past Matthew Wethers.

Kalle was the early leader of heat 4 but the very speedy Frampton got round him on that wide line off turn two.

Neath was out of heat 5 with a 2-minute exclusion, but didn?t fancy a 15 metre ride. Jerran Hart came in, Ryan won the heat but again Tobias was pointless. Score 15-15.

Andrew missed the start in heat 6, Sundstrom let Hughes go ahead and team rode him home for a 5-1 to give Rockets a 4-point lead. It wasn?t going to be easy to peg that back but We made a start in heat 7, Kalle this time being too speedy for Frampton with Matthew picking up the point.

Two in a row for Kalle as he won heat 8. It took a rerun because he led the first running, with Tobias passing Jerran Hart for third, but the German tried too hard to improve his position and crashed on the pits bend.

Tully off gate 1 was away in heat 9 and won easily, proving again just how well he can ride this track.

He came in to heat 10 but didn?t make such a good start, and we were in trouble till Hughes fell and gifted a shared race.

That 2-point gap was still there as Sundstrom beat Fisher in heat 11. Kalle was pushed out at the first bend but passed Strudwick for third.

Heat 12 looked like a chance to make ground but Neath won it from Matthew and Kalle.

In heat 13 the home side fielded Sundstrom and Frampton, both in great form, and we seemed to be up against it. However from gate 1 Ryan Fisher raced to the front and rode a brilliant heat to prevent us from losing any ground.

On a night of fluctuating fortunes, that swung the balance our way as we looked strong in heat 14. Matthew Wethers gated, but Kalle was pushed to the back. However guest reserve Jerran Hart fell on the next bend, and on the first turn of lap two Kalle cut inside Ekberg to put us on a 5-1!

From the pits end we could clearly see that the sun was shining into one of the red lights and made it appear to be lit. Kalle saw this too and slowed, losing second. The race had not been stopped though, and Kalle was touring and trying to make a complaint to the ref at the same time.

Ekberg then fell as well, and remounted, and Kalle summed up the situation quickly enough to pass the home no. 4 again!

Confusion reigned but there was no reason not to announce the heat as a 5-1, fully deserved, leaving us two points ahead, 43-41. And the drama hadn?t even started yet!

The final heat lined up ? gate 1, Matthew; gate 2 ? Jordan Frampton; gate 3 ? Ryan; Gate 4 ? Linus Sundstrom. On earlier form we seemed to be looking to Ryan, but he jumped too early and touched the tapes as they went up. Matthew made a good gate from the inside but it was stopped.

So back he went to the 15 metre mark, with Matthew losing the advantage of gate 1. Things had swung in Rockets? favour ? until Frampton made the same mistake and touched the tapes!

Now we had Fisher and Frampton back off 15 metres, with Frampton on the outside and Wethers restored to gate 1. And the captain really made that count by making a brilliant start and taking the lead! Sundstrom was chasing and of course was a major threat, with Frampton having outgated Fisher and holding third. Sundstrom seemed to get under Wethers, but Matthew brilliantly came back to squeeze ahead again!

Next time round, Sundstrom tried a cutback ? and overslid and fell! Frampton and Fisher missed him, but Frampton lifted and ran into the back of Matthew. Mayhem!

Frampton was excluded and that meant we were almost home. Incredibly, it was ruled that Sundstrom had remounted and was under power at the time of the stoppage, though there was no way that can have been the case.

We still hadn?t quite reached the end though, because at the three-man restart, Fisher stalled his bike and was ruled out on 2 minutes. That left Matthew on his own against Sundstrom, and wisely he let the Swede go and made sure we got the two points needed for victory.

An incredible effort with Kalle on 15+3, Ryan 13 and Matthew 11. A really unexpected and memorable victory.

Rye House Rockets v Edinburgh Monarchs

"Monarchs are on the road looking for Premier League points, returning to Hoddeston in deepest Hertfordshire tonight (7.00), where only four weeks ago they stunned Len Silver's high flying Rye House Rockets with one of their best ever away performances in a 20-point KO Cup win.

It could have been even more had Andrew Tully not been robbed of a heat win when he was disqualified after his race for not having a dirt deflector fitted. If only speedway applied all its rules with equal vigour! On a slightly greasy surface that night, only one home rider won any heats.

That was the young Swedish 'blonde bombshell, Linus Sundstrom who is expected to be fit after an injury scare when all four riders went into the fence during a recent Swedish League match. Linus moves up to No.1 for this match and poses the biggest threat to the high-flying Monarchs.

His Swedish team-mate, Stefan Ekberg, has also recovering from an injury to his lower back in a crash at Birmingham but should be fit and raring to go. Not so lucky was Luke Bowen who broke his forearm near the elbow in a separate crash in the same match at Perry Barr and is out for two months.

Into his place comes the 37-year-old German rider, Robbie Kessler, formerly of Stoke, Sheffield and Redcar. And that place is at reserve because that's where Bowen was headed at the start of this month, with recent Edinburgh guest Kyle Hughes moving up into the No.2 spot.

It has also been proving a troubling time for Chris Neath at No.3 who has been going over everything on his bikes to try to get to the root of a disappointing run of form. Still on the up and with one foot in the Elite League is Poole-born Jordan Frampton who drops into the No.5 race jacket position.

The second part of the new Rockets' reserve pairing is Lee Strudwick who has been drafted in from their National League Cobras side to replace the out-of form Kurt Shields, who provided some of the entertainment for Newport at Armadale last night when his bike took on a life of its own.

Sadly, one of Edinburgh's best performers of a month ago, Kevin Wolbert, is missing on more continental business, so they go into the match as a six-man team operating rider replacement ? never an ideal situation. But the other heroes of that victory, flyin' Ryan Fisher and super Kalle Katajisto will worry the opposition.

Edinburgh will be hoping for big performances from the mercurial Andrew Tully and the often brilliant Matthew Wethers to compensate for Wolbert's absence. New German recruit, Tobias Busch showed a flash of his true capability last night and should be well capable of getting among the points.

The match-up between young Scot, Cal McDade and Lee Strudwick should be an interesting one with both riders stepping up from National League racing. McDade looked a bit more confident in picking up a paid four points against Newport and should enjoy the slicker Hoddeston track.

So Rye House will be looking to put a troubled spell behind them and gain revenge for one of their only home defeats since the age of the dinosaurs. And with track conditions likely to be more to their liking, Monarchs will have to gate like demons if they want to produce anything like a repeat performance.

Probable line-ups

Rye House: Linus Sundstrom, Kyle Hughes, Chris Neath (c), Stefan Ekberg, Jordan Frampton, Lee Strudwick, Robbie Kessler.

Edinburgh: Ryan Fisher, Tobias Busch, rider replacement for Kevin Wolbert, Matthew Wethers (c), Andrew Tully, Cal McDade, Kalle Katajisto.