Title Partner
Glasgow Tigers
Team Manager: Cameron Brown |
53 | ||||||||
| 1. Richard Lawson | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 0 | ||
| 2. Danyon Hume | 2* | 2* | 0 | 1* | 1 | 6 | 3 | ||
| 3. Ulrich Ostergaard | FD | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| 4. Benjamin Basso | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 1* | 12 | 1 | ||
| 5. Tom Brennan | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 12 | 0 | ||
| 6. Broc Nicol | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 0 | ||
| 7. Connor Bailey | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |||
Edinburgh Monarchs
Team Manager: Alex Harkess |
37 | ||||||||
| 1. Ryan Douglas | 1 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 8 | 0 | |||
| 2. Lasse Fredriksen | 0 | 1* | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||
| 3. Kye Thomson | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| 4. Paco Castagna | 1* | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |||
| 5. Josh Pickering | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1* | 1 | 3 | 11 | 1 | |
| 6. James Sarjeant | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 7. Jacob Hook | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | FD | 3 | 0 | ||
The What the Fork Monarchs battled hard but ultimately came up short of the match point they required going down 53-37 at Ashfield on Sunday a result that sees Glasgow move onto the final of the Jubilee League on points difference.
The Monarchs main issue on the day being a lack of race wins with only 4 in total and with 2 of these being shared races anyway the Monarchs were unable to mount the challenge required leaving team boss Alex Harkess to say "We weren't getting the race winners and picking up the momentum that we needed and like we normally do. Normally there is someone who starts the momentum going and everyone clicks in, but we couldn't get that going today which is where Sam (Masters) was a big miss today. Josh Pickering wasn't able to get himself into the big points scoring positions so then you have to fall back on your 3 and 4 and they weren't doing it either, so it became an impossible job. Even when we were making the starts, we weren't riding competitive 1st and 2nd bends."
The writing was on the wall fairly early as the Tigers raced out to an 8-point lead after 4 races the major incident in these heats involving Tigers captain Ulrich Ostergaard who caught some unexpected grip and crashed while leading heat 4 this causing him to withdraw from the meeting with a hand injury.
With Ben Basso, Tom Brennan and guest Richard Lawson all in fine form Ostergaard's points scoring wasn't overly missed the rest of the way as the Tigers continued to push their advantage. It was heat 8 before the Monarchs would taste the chequered flag for the first time as Jacob Hook made the jump and with Lasse Frederiksen in 3rd it was 1 of only 2 heat advantages on the day also. The strength of the Tigers start though meaning that this only reduced the deficit to 12 points.
Pickering would take the first of 2 wins for the day in the next race to maintain the Monarchs slim chances but with Lawson winning heat 10 and Brennan heats 11 and 12 the home men's lead had been built up to 16 points and this meant the Monarchs needed 14 from the final 3 races.
The Monarchs did take a 4-2 in heat 13 with guest for Masters Ryan Douglas taking the win but when Jacob Hook came down chasing the Tigers pair in heat 14 that was that and it was the Tigers who were now guaranteed to progress.
Pickering did end his day on a high winning heat 15 but it was too little too late for the Monarchs who now turn their attention to a pivotal Championship clash against Plymouth next Friday as they look to seal their place in the end of season playoffs.
The task is known as the What the Fork Monarchs head to Ashfield on Sunday looking to progress to the final of the Jubilee League.
Glasgow's victory at Berwick on Saturday night means that the Monarchs require a minimum of 1 point if they are to pip their biggest rivals to the showpiece one day event final at Sheffield later in the season.
The home men know there job is simply to stop the Monarchs getting to 42 points on the day and it will be them that will be final bound.
Both teams go into the match missing their number 1's Sam Masters and Craig Cook after that horrible first bend crash at Armadale on Friday night. Poole's Richard Lawson steps in for Cook while Scunthorpe man Ryan Douglas comes in for Masters.
Elsewhere the line-ups are as expected with Lasse Fredriksen riding through the hand injury he sustained on Friday in the same incident while for Glasgow Danyon Hume and Ulrich Ostergaard ride through the pain barrier also after spills over the weekend.
This is of course the Monarchs 3rd visit to Ashfield this year with 46-44 and 52-38 defeats so far, a repeat of the former would do the job for the Monarchs, but the Tigers tails are up so the task ahead is a big one.
Tapes up at 3pm with live updates available on the Monarchs website
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Bathgate Road
Armadale
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