UNLUCKY ONE-POINT LOSS

The Scotwaste Monarchs gained their first away league point of the season at Leicester, but were desperately unfortunate not to win the match with our best dispay south of Berwick this season.

It was a miracle that the travelling support - and there were a lot of Monarchs' fans there, scattered about the stadium - saw any racing at all. Around four fifteen there had been a ferocious storm with heavy rain, thunder and lightning, and yet with just a short delay to the start time the riders were able to race with little apparent difficulty.

Considering we were without Joszef Tabaka due to a Polish commitment, we probably didn't fancy our chances much against the Lions who are unbeaten at home in the league.

However we raced with great tenacity, and led by six points after five heats. Gate 4 was proving advantageous at that stage and we had three early race wins from there.

Slowly we were pegged back and Lions took the lead after heat 9. We regained the lead in heat 11 with Cook and Sneddon flying to a maximum over home reserve Graversen (top scorer for his team), but again we dropped behind in heat 12 (which featured the first pass of the meeting, Bjerre on Pijper).

It also featured a blatant flier for Graversen after referee Steel had pulled back several earlier heats for the same thing.

Cook won heat 13 to take his score to 11, and it looked as though heat 14 would be shared until Makinen fell at the back and couldn't shifty his bike.

It looked as though Marcel Helfer would be the hero in the rerun. He found a wide outside line and flew past the early leader Graversen - only to come to a halt when he shed a chain. He was too far from the finish to push and so we lost a 3-2, going into the last heat 43-40 behind.

In the last heat decider Bjerre appeared to fall on his own at the back on the first bend but was allowed in the rerun. We needed a 5-1, and the outstanding Cook did win, but Graversen was fairly comfortable in second spot and that was enough for a fortunate home win by a point.

It is our first away point of the season, but should have been more. Leicester are unbeaten at home but to be honest, they looked there for the taking with Magnus Karlsson well below par.