Strong Monarchs start but Pirates progress

The Stellar Monarchs ripped into this Knockout Cup second leg with such gusto that for a time, an aggregate victory looked a possibility. But Poole are made of strong stuff with some top-line performers, and they re-asserted themselves and had qualification sealed by heat 13. Monarchs took the victory on the night which will be some consolation as they look forward to BSN Series and Championship commitments in the next few weeks.

No. 1 Josh Pickering gave his usual highly committed performance and was not downhearted at the end. "We've got to take the positives from that," he said, "we've beaten a good team Poole at home and that's something we certainly didn't do last year. They are a great side, it would have been nice to win on aggregate but couldn't manage that. We certainly want to win all our home matches this year. I'm happy that the boys are putting the work in and they will continue to get better."

These first four heats really lifted the hopes of the home support. Josh Pickering and Lasse Fredriksen opened with a 5-1 over Pirates' star Richard Lawson, with Thomsen falling at the back.

Max James continued his excellent start to the season with his first home race win in heat 2, and then Paco and Kye hit the front from the tapes in heat 3! Tom Brennan rode a great race to peg back Kye but we still took an advantage, and we repeated that in heat 4 won after a great start by Justin Sedgmen with Connor Coles taking an important point.

So it was 16-8 and we were only one behind on aggregate! That however proved to be the high water mark for the Monarchs as Poole came back strongly over the next few heats.

It was not unexpected that Brennan, Lawson and the Cooks would be formidable opponents, but heat 5 was won by Tobias Thomsen with backing from Lawson for a 5-1. The Dane certainly proved to be one of the key men in the meeting.

Two heats later another fine ride by Brennan to pass race leader Sedgmen chipped two more points off our lead, and the aggregate was not looking so hopeful – 7 behind in the tie.

Thomsen took another race win in heat 8, and both Ben Cook and Brennan followed up with further wins to prevent us from making progress. The heats were starting to run out.

Justin Sedgmen in heat 11 was our first race winner since heat 4, but we were lacking race advantages. When Brennan won heat 12, it was almost all over.

There were several good races but heat 13 was surely the pick of them. Richard Lawson gated with Josh and Sedgy chasing, and round the third/fourth bend of lap one while Josh moved Richard out, Ben Cook came storming up the inside and forced Sedgy to the back. Josh kept up the chase and eventually with a cutback followed by a dive bomb to the next bend he squeezed alongside and eventually past Lawson.

The scores were still level and Poole were through at that point. Zach Cook prevented Paco getting his usual heat 14 win so it was 42-42 going in to the last race.

This time Sedgy got to the front, and Josh just squeezed up his inside where there was not much room, so when Tom Brennan slightly lost control the home pair were able to establish a winning lead to secure the home win.

Monarchs and Pirates Up For The Cup

For the second weekend in a row the Stellar Monarchs are tasked with recovering points arrears from away defeats to give themselves a chance of continued involvement in two different competitions.

Last Friday, in the BSN Series, Monarchs required to claw back just four points from Berwick Bandits to secure the crucial aggregate bonus point that would set up an epic double-headed decider against Glasgow later in the month (Friday May 10th at Ashfield followed by the Armadale return 21 days later)

Against Berwick, in what was Edinburgh's first home outing of the season, the Monarchs took just three heats to turn the four-point. Shortfall on its head with a trio of 4-2 advantages. Thereafter, the Bandits were restricted to just two heat advantages of their own as their Scot's' conquerors eased their way to a comfortable 53-37 triumph that earned them the bonus point with something to spare.

It was a fairly decent performance across the board from the Stellar Monarchs, highlighted by three riders - Joshie Pickering, Justin Sedgmen and a revitalised (with thee heat wins from his four rides) Kye Thomson - all weighing in with points tallies in double-figures.

Following Berwick's similar bonus point surrender to Glasgow, a place in the semi-finals of the BSN Series will now come down to who comes out on top of what promises to be a mouthwatering showdown between the great Scottish rivals with that bonus point once again front and centre as to why is at stake.

This Friday too, progress in the Knockout Cup will be dependant on Edinburgh's ability to make up a first leg deficit, this time by the slightly more challenging margin of nine points to Poole Pirates.

Not that getting away so lightly from Wimborne Road is anything to be sniffed at, of course.

Nevertheless, the Monarchs will be under no illusions as to what will be needed to overcome this Pirates outfit. With former Glasgow big-hitters Richard Lawson and Tom Brennan, as well as brothers Ben and Zach Cook, leading their charge, seeing off such a capable team would certainly be considered a sterling achievement this early in the season.

Yet a number of our home riders - Joshie, Sedgmen, Paco - are steadily beginning to come in to their own just now so Friday's clash looks like it has all the making of a real classic."