EVERYTHING HAPPENED AT RYE HOUSE

After a highly eventful and controversial night, the Scotwaste Monarchs and the Rye House Rockets finished locked at 45-45, with Craig Cook yet again winning the last heat decider.

Claus Vissing should have been Craig's partner in that final heat, but after an unusual decision by Chris Gay to rule that both Vissing and Anders Mellgren had touched the tapes, they went back 15 metres.

At the second attempt Mr Gay decided that Claus had moved too quickly, something that both the rider and John Campbell are adamant did not happen.

Alex Harkess said "John was watching the back two riders and said Claus never moved. He was using the spare, new tyre we get for having a rider replacement facility, so he was confident he would get a good start. I think that's why the referee thought he went too quickly."

At about the fourth time of asking, Craig outpaced their impressive guest Josh Grajczonek to gain the draw. Earlier our no. 1 had suffered no less than THREE tapes disqualifications in heats 1, 3 and 11.

Alex Harkess said "Craig was caught up in tailbacks on the M6, and when he arrived he was very much on edge, wound up. That's what caused him to hit the tapes twice early on.

"Once he calmed down he was fine. The third time it was caused by another rider moving."

Craig rode off 15 metres in heats 3 and 11. He passed Nelson in heat 3 and might well have passed Mellgren also, but the race was stopped when Nelson crashed through the fence.

In heat 11 he caught Lykke and passed him with a superb outside run on the final corner.

We had trailed 9-3 after two heats, but levelled up with a 5-1 in heat 4. Thereafter the scores see-sawed back and forth with both teams making mistakes.

Jozsef Tabaka took up where he left off in Friday with two excellent wins, then a third, but he crashed heavily in heat 11 trying to ride round the camber on the first corner. He looked very shaken and was ineffective riding Derek's bike in heat 14.

Claus battled hard, winning his first heat and keeping Grajczonek at the back in heat 13.

Derek struggled but did manage an important race win in heat 8, a 5-1 with Max Fricke. Max was again a very effective reserve with his usual slow gating and exciting inside-line passing moves. Paid 14 was his return this time.

Our return from rider replacement, in spite of everyone being available for a ride, was a mere four, and we do prefer having all of our riders!

But while we might well have done better, it's only fair to say that Rye House suffered some bad luck. Nelson had a crash and a puncture later on, Mellgren had an engine failure while on a 5-1 in heat 9, and both Bunyan and Aspgren suffered falls.

A draw was probably fair overall. We now welcome back Theo as we move on to Peterborough for the Fours.

(This meeting was reported on last night but the report was lost due to a corrupted database.)