Newcastle Diamonds v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Monday 10th July 2006, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Newcastle returned to their old race day and fielded a strange team for our visit.

Monarchs had a fair travelling support down and were hoping our side could lift themselves to improve on recent performances.

In the circumstances we should have pushed the Diamonds a bit harder, and the reasons we didn't were familiar ones - poor starting and lack of race winners.

We need everyone riding at their best, and in that respect we did see Theo make a couple of good starts and have his best away match for a while. Henrik was worth watching with some interesting cornering, but his gating was well below his usual standard.

William and Derek both looked slow and for everyone's sake, they must sort this out.

The talking point in the early stages concerned heat 2. There was no debate, because absolutely no-one thought that David Dowling's decision to exclude Derek in heat 2 (after Mills had parked in front of him) was the correct one. It was ludicrous.

But lo and behold, Sean got his reward for completing four laps in the rerun as Adam McKinna pulled up at the back, and Mills stopped while in front. Sean lapped Mills though the Diamonds' guest still pushed part of the way till he was halted.

We managed to fill the minor places in most of the early heats and trailed 20-25 at heat 8 - though we hadn't taken a point off Franc, Henry or Stancl.

Two heats later we had lost two 5-1's and a big defeat was looming. However we then saw Theo make a start in his TR to beat Franc, a 7-2, and suddenly we had a chance to turn it round with Moller / Sneddon v McAllan / Mills in heat 12.

Sadly we fluffed the start again and Henrik had to pass McAllan even to gain 2 points from the heat. That was a big disappointment.

William took a TR ride in heat 13 and we scored a 5-3 there, with r/r McAllan at the back.

Henrik gated in heat 14 but Stancl managed to squeeze past him, then we had a booster to finish as Theo again beat Franc. A Stancl ef gave us a 4-2 and a score that leaves the aggregate bonus a possibility.

Full Result Details