CLASSY COOK ON SONG AGAIN

Craig Cook (14 points) led the way for the Scotwaste Monarchs again, beating all of the home men in turn, but there wasn't enough backup as we went down 54-41.

Craig failed to score in heat one but bounced back from that to win his next three races, including a 6-pointer in heat 11, before missing the gate again in the last race and storming back to grab second place.

That was one of the best races of the night, and Craig stopped the unbeaten run of Carl Wilkinson who was the last of the home riders to drop a point.

He added Wilko's scalp to those of Aaron Summers (heat 5), Matej Kus (heat 11) and Ulrich Ostergaard (heat 13) as he once again showed how good his current form is.

There were a number of dodgy starts - Craig possibly got away with one in heat 13 - but the referee finally did stop a race after Cookie got flier in heat 15.

In the early stages virtually all of the races were being won from gates 2 and 4, only 3 points being dropped by riders on these gates in the first six heats.

Other than Cook, our only race winner was Micky Dyer in heat 2. Our reserves actually outscored the Bears' duo with Lee Smart looking very rusty, and our old friend Max Dilger earning exclusions for bringing down Wethrs and Wright.

Andrew Tully looked lively without having much luck. He came off in heat 6 while contesting the lead with Ostergaard, and scored a good point by passing Kus in heat 13. His gating didn't help him much though.

Another of the most enjoyable heats was heat 5 in which Derek Sneddon narrowly lost second to Summers after a race-long battle.

With a couple of heats left we had an outside chance of a point, but a 1-5 reverse there ruled that out.