Big last heat secures victory

Craig Cook made a triumphant return to his former home as he top scored for the victorious Stellar Monarchs in their opening BSN Series match of the season, a 48-42 win over Glasgow. It took a last heat 5-1 from Cook and Josh Pickering to stretch the advantage to six points.

It was an immaculate performance by the man who inspired so many trophy-winning nights in his previous period at Armadale. He said "I enjoyed the match and was happy with my bike, it felt really comfortable though it wasn't driving as I wanted from the starts. We've done a lot of work in the workshop. I'm very pleased with the victory though."

Gating was all-important for much of the match, as Monarchs clung to the 4-point advantage they gained over the opening 4 heats. The home side supplied all the heat winners over that opening stretch, Pickering, Hook, Castagna and Cook being the men to take the chequered flag.

We then had four successive shared heats as Harris and Brennan broke the race-winning spell, and Marcin Nowak also took a 3-pointer as he won heat 8, a race which had looked like an opportunity for Monarchs.

Kye Thomson and Paco Castagna did step up in heat 9 with a 5-1 over Brennan, but the elation didn't last long as Ben Basso and Claus Vissing hit straight back with a maximum of their own. Josh Pickering came to grief in this one trying to find an outside line but catching the fence.

Cook then dropped his only point of the night in heat 11, just failing to catch Harris, but there was compensation as Kyle Bickley took third place from Complin.

Kye Thomson held firm in heat 12, beating Basso, and with three races remaining Monarchs led 38-34.

It looked like a Monarchs 5-1 in heat 13 as Cook and Pickering hit the front, but a brilliant move by Harris saw him sweep past Pickering with a bold move off the outside of the pits bend, the best pass up to this point in the match.

That allowed a tactical sub in heat 14, Harris replacing Pijper, and Bomber duly teamed up with Vissing to cut the gap to just two going in to the last heat.

Another strong first corner by Cook took him to the front with Harris and Brennan in the minor places and Pickering at the back. This brought out the best in the Monarchs captain who roared past the opposition at the start of lap two and pulled away to back Cook for the match clinching 5-1. It looks like Monarchs have another powerhouse pair for the big heats.

Monarchs head for a tough assignment at Ashfield on Sunday (5pm) in the return.

In the Northern Junior League match which followed, new member of the Monarchs Academy NDL team Dayle Wood won his first race on Armadale shale. Unfortunately his bike packed up at the start of his next race and he was not able to come out for his third heat. But he wil be in action for the Academy against Belle Vue next Friday.