DIAMONDS A POINT UP

After the heroics of Tuesday night on Sky the Scotwaste Monarchs were disappointed tonight to lose the first leg of their KO Cup quarter final to Newcastle by 44-45.

In all honesty it looked for most of the meeting that the deficit would be quite a bit more, as Newcastle consistently outgated the home riders on what was again a slick surface.

At one time Monarchs trailed by 11 points, edging closer towards the end of the meeting.

In normal circumstances a full strength Monarchs team would travel to Newcastle feeling they had a chance of overturning the deficit, but after a tough contest there is damage to men and machines.

The worst affected is Jozsef Tabaka who was on the outside as three riders went into turn three in heat 14, and hit the fence very hard. He was badly shaken and unlikely to ride for the remainder of the weekend (he was due in Hungary on Saturday).

We already have Theo Pijper struggling with the pain from his broken ribs, and he is due to race in Norway tomorrow before he travels to Newcastle.

We also had Max Fricke taking a purler tonight, in some pain and with a wrecked bike. So it will be a patched-up Monarchs' squad which rides on Sunday.

Tonight's match started with a thrilling heat between Cook and Tully, but things started to go wrong when Fricke clipped Kerr's back wheel on the second bend of heat two and came down heavily after trying to hang on.

That was the end of bike no. 1 for Max, who was excluded even though Kerr had not really been in control when the incident happened. It was the first of a number of difficult decisions for the referee, mostly racing incidents other than heat 3 when Christian Henry earned an exclusion for a shoulder charge on Tabaka.

The Robson / Tully pairing was as impressive as any we have seen at Armadale for a long time, and they took a 5-1 from heat 5. We also saw how impressive first season PL rider Lewis Kerr is – he won two heats and helped Tully to a heat 8 5-1.

That put us 11 down at that point, a disastrous position, but the team as usual showed fighting spirit over the remaining heats.

Even Craig Cook wasn't unbeatable this week, losing to Robson and Lindgren in spite of terrific efforts on a track which he was unhappy with.

However Theo Pijper came into his own in the closing stages, coolly heading Robson in heat 11, and Claus Vissing after another night of struggle managed to win heat 12.

Heat 14 proved to be a disaster for Tabaka, who couldn't ride in the rerun after Lindgren was excluded. Fricke won the heat.

We scored our only 5-1 of the night in the final race with Cook winning easily and Pijper superbly cutting under Robson and Worrall to take second after a tough race.

Monarchs had Fricke, Vissing and Pijper excluded in the early stages, while Newcastle's Henry, Tully and Lindgren suffered the same fate at various stages. Mostly they were tough decisions in a hard-fought match. Unfortunately it was the Monarchs' men and machines who came off worst.

We should give a mention to Josh Bates who rode with spirit and skill as Mitchell Davey's replacement. James Sarjeant rides on Sunday but we hope to see Josh again.

We will head for Newcastle on Sunday to give it our best shot.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

This Friday sees the first leg of a very challenging weekend of KO Cup action with the formidable Newcastle Diamonds visiting Armadale on Friday and the mighty Monarchs making the return trip to the Newcastle Stadium on Sunday.

Both sides will think they are in with a real chance in either leg since nothing seems to be predictable about the Premier League this season. Newcastle recently won at Ipswich then drew with the same opponents at home, while Edinburgh have lost at home and achieved one of their best ever away wins all in the space of a week.

New superlatives had to be invented for Craig Cook’s magnificent Heat 15 match-winning ride at Somerset and he will hope to carry on his stunning form against the Diamonds popular captain and talismanic No.1, Stuart Robson from Sunderland, the former Coventry and Lakeside star who has topped and tailed a 20-year career in the Diamonds' colours.

Both riders at No.2, have ridden for both clubs. Former Diamonds favourite, Derek Sneddon will be hoping to get through at least one speedway match with his bike undamaged while former Monarchs favourite, Andrew Tully is just back in action after injuring his back in practice before he had turned a wheel in anger for the Diamonds.

Monarchs fans will be hoping Theo Pijper isn’t too badly affected by the injury he picked up in his long track meeting in faraway Finland last week. His opponent at No.3 is another likeable former Monarch, Christian Henry, the Aussie who seems to have at last settled into a consistent run of high scores after several seasons blighted by injuries.

The home fans will also be wondering what the next instalment of the Jozsef Tabaka story has in store now that the sensational Hungarian has moved to No.4. His opposite number is Ludvig Lindgren, the younger of the Lindgren brothers from Sweden. In a six-year career so far he has ridden for Wolves, Birmingham, Berwick and now Newcastle.

The spotlight has suddenly fallen on Monarchs' No.5, Claus Vissing whose scores have taken an unexpected dip. He will have to be sharper this week as he faces the young and hungry Merseysider, Richie Worrall whose sensational scores have been a huge factor in Newcastle's success in only his second full Premier League season.

In the continuing absence of Mitchell Davey, Monarchs have a guest at No.6, the young Mildenhall Fen Tigers star, Josh Bates, the nephew of former speedway racing uncles. There's a double-take on the other side of the pits where Diamonds track Steve Worrall, twin brother of Richie, also a former moto-cross rider.

Last but not least, there's an intriguing match-up at No 7 where the fast-improving 17-year-old Max Fricke lines up opposite yet another former moto-cross rider, 23-year-old Lewis Kerr from King's Lynn. Both have been scoring well recently, so this match-up could be crucial to the outcome of this match and this tie.

The difficult matches just keep coming one after the other in what is turning out to be a fantastic Premier League season. With Monarchs having shown their vulnerability last Friday, Newcastle will travel north with high hopes of emulating their Redcar neighbours and taking a lead into the second leg.

Monarchs are back to near full strength, but there are concerns about their crucial No.3, Theo Pijper who is riding with broken ribs and they again have a Conference League guest at No.6. Combine this with the patchy form of Claus Vissing and the doubts creep in. Yet again, you can lift your team's chances, so be sure to be in your favourite spot at 7.30 sharp.

Likely line-ups:

EDINBURGH SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Craig Cook, Derek Sneddon (capt.), Theo Pijper, Jozsef Tabaka, Claus Vissing, Josh Bates (guest), Max Fricke.

NEWCASTLE SAPPHIRE ENGINEERING DIAMONDS: Stuart Robson (capt), Andrew Tully, Christian Henry, Ludvig Lindgren, Richie Worrall, Steve Worrall, Lewis Kerr.