We beat the Eagles and the weather

The Staggs Bar Monarchs performed well on a difficult track tonight to win the curtailed match against Eastbourne by 51-27, abandoned after heat 13 with the track very wet after the arrival of the rain which we had seen coming over during the evening.

Home captain Ricky Wells was unbeaten in his three rides and said "It was a good team win tonight, we need to do some pretty drastic away wins in the matches we have left so I need to get my act together and start scoring away.

"I think I've struggled with my shoulder injury more than I know, it doesn't seem to be getting better I don't know why."

There had been so much bad weather during the week and also on the morning of the fixture that the riders probably knew they were in for a tough time. It was the old story – the harder you rode it the more success you were likely to have, but that is so much easier said than done. It takes guts to ride hard into an unpredictable corner.

No-one coped better with the conditions than our returning injured Aussie Cameron Heeps who powered into every turn and so looked the smoothest rider on view. Cam was our Monarch of the match tonight, but to be fair most of the team were on strong form.

Ricky Wells has struggled in some away fixtures recently but he is still getting round Armadale, and was unbeaten in his three heats. Both Sam Masters and Josh Pickering dropped points in just the one heat (both to Morris) and James Sarjeant had another steady night picking up 7 points.

At reserve William Lawson looked good, won heat 2 and was excluded from heat 8 as he tussled for the lead with Bowtell. This looked harsh though William reckoned it was his own fault! It was another tough night for Connor Coles who should certainly have had third place in heat 2 but made a last bend error, then finally took a gift point in heat 11.

Best visitor by far was their guest Nick Morris. He won heat 1 easily as Sam Masters got stuck back in third spot, then he fell in heat 5 trying to catch the Pickering-Wells pairing. Heeps beat him in heat 11 but heat 12 was the best of the night, a passing and re-passing battle between the two Aussies Pickering and Morris. Nick came out on top in a thriller.

Lewis Kerr tried hard but got into lots of bother, while Richard Lawson tended to settle for the easier points without threatening the home stars. Kyle Newman and Alfie Bowtell picked up points but both finished with a crash, though they seemed to be OK. Newman's was the most dramatic, a sudden stoppage which dumped him heavily on to the track.

The rain came on really heavily before heat 13 with the result that the riders were skating in this race. Masters and Heeps slithered to the front, Morris this time decided enough was enough and pulled off while Lawson took the point a long way behind.

No-one was surprised at all when the match was then abandoned and we had some extremely heavy rain thereafter. The many amateur weather forecasters on social media had mostly got it wrong, and we had got the match in.