Stoke Potters v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Saturday 22nd April 2006, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We gave a very convincing performance to overcome Stoke and their over-watered track.

Why was it so wet? It was obvious as soon as we arrived that it was far too damp to dry properly on an overcast day, and so it proved. Endless tractor driving between heats may have been designed to improve the surface, or to delay matters while their riders prepared for multiple outings.

Alan Mogridge was banned from the meeting because he had been due to ride at Rye House in the British semi-final the same night. He was there in his 'civvies' and rider replacement covered him well with paid 9 from the first 3 rides.

As at Redcar Henrik started with a perfect gate and 4 laps to beat Lemon, and with Theo easily heading Michael Coles we were ahead right away.

Derek blew the opposition away again in heat 2, but the scores were levelled in heat 3.

Rusty was back and it looked like he would team up with Derek to share heat 4, until Derek came down on the slippery third turn of lap 3.

Theo clicked into gear to beat Kessler in heat 5, with Henrik keeping Clews at the back. That levelled the scores but we then went 6 down over the next two heats, with Evans showing himself to be a danger man by winning heat 7.

We were soon back in contention, and again it was Derek involved with Theo to easily beat Michael Coles in heat 8. It's hard to see Colesy continuing if this is the best he can do.

Rusty got out in front to win heat 9, and heat 10 was a crucial one. With Lemon in it and Evans replacing Coles Stoke must have been confident, but it was our Matthew and William who led the way. A mistake by Matthew on the final lap gave Lemon some hope, but he crashed on the final turn trying to come through.

The same Stoke pair faced Henrik and Theo in the next, and this time Lemon did win but we snuffed out the Evans threat to maintain our two-point lead.

Matthew was terrific again in winning heat 12, with Derek taking third from Clews.

What a fuss we then had over heat 13. If Rusty was doing anything wrong, it wasn't obvious - but the heat was stopped twice, first to warn Rusty then to exclude him. And each time Stoke had been on a 5-1!

Stoke must then have been very frustrated when we brought in Derek and he won the heat with Henrik second! Even Lemon didn't get a look-in.

With an 8-point lead it was nearly over, but Lemon then took a TS ride. William and Derek outgated Kessler who dropped out on lap one, thus virtually guaranteeing our victory. Lemon did catch our pair, and barged his way past to take an excellent win, but we went into the last race 5 ahead.

Once again there was some palaver as we attempted to use the ineligible Matthew, but eventually Theo and Rusty both passed Evans to share the heat.

A super win, with some very good race results, our riders refused to be upset by either the track or the home officials.

Full Result Details