Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Friday 23rd March 2007, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was a stop-start opening night at Armadale with crashes and engine problems punctuating the night, and an unpleasant pileup to end the evening.

It seems neither Matthew Wethers nor Robert Ksiezak are seriously hurt following their major pileup in heat 13 (see news story). The delay in treating the riders and awaiting the ambulance took us close to our curfew and the match was abandoned at this stage.

Earlier in front of the biggest ever opening night Armadale crowd, we had seen a match which had swung one way and the other. Glasgow led after five heats, Monarchs then built up a 9-point advantage with the help of a heat 9 5-0, only for Tigers to come back with a 7-1 in heat 11.

At the time of the call-off Tigers probably fancied their chances, with Shane Parker and George Stancl proving once again the most influential figures in the match.

Stancl started the match with a comfortable win in the fastest time of the night, while his partner Lee Smethills held second on the opening lap only to stop on the pits turn. This was the first of numerous examples of poor gating by the Monarchs? squad.

Derek Sneddon went ahead in heat 2 and may have clipped David McAllan?s front wheel on the first turn. McAllan fell and was not pleased to be excluded from the rerun, a win for Sneddon from the hard-pressing Lee Dicken.

Daniele Tessari made a quick start in heat 3 but didn?t turn, and headed for the fence taking William Lawson with him. William came back to pass Shane Parker but couldn?t catch Trent Leverington, while Tessari finished well back.

Glasgow took the lead in heat 4 with Robert Ksiezak winning and Matthew Wethers having to come from the back to pass Dicken.

Lawson impressively gained Monarchs? second race win in heat 5 in spite of strong pressure from Stancl, but again Tessari struggled at the rear.

Lee Dicken was the early leader in heat 6 until Ronnie Correy nipped through to the front. Henrik Moller was also pressing hard when Dicken stopped on the final lap. That 5-1 put Monarchs two points up.

Wethers then rode an excellent heat 7 to keep Parker at pay, cleverly holding the inside on the final lap to prevent the Tiger squeezing through.

Moller was warming up now and had a comfortable win in heat 8. Derek Sneddon pressurised McAllan for second but had to settle for a point.

Tessari and Lawson came down on the first bend of heat 9, and Ksiezak was rather surprisingly ruled the guilty party. In the rerun the Monarchs were again outgated, by Dicken this time, but Dicken spun off on the pits bend. He hobbled off leaving Monarchs to take a 5-0 and a 9-point lead.

Parker then headed the Correy-Moller pairing and in heat 11 Tigers made their big move, using Parker as a TS along with Stancl at the gate. It looked formidable and so it proved, Parker quickly passing Sneddon and gradually wearing down Wethers, who didn?t repeat his earlier clever inside-line ride. Parker just failed to catch Stancl at the finish so Tigers had to settle for a 7-1.

Tigers cut the gap further in heat 12 when Parker won an excellent heat against Lawson, after Andrew Tully had crashed spectacularly but without damage.

Then came heat 13. Once more the Tigers made the start, Stancl leading from Ksiezak, but Ksiezak spun off on the pits corner right in the path of Wethers storming round the outside. Matthew went right over the top and it looked as though it could be nasty for both riders, though thankfully we know now that they seem to be OK.

Monarchs did not ride especially well and will need to improve their gating and all-round performance if they are to push Tigers close on Sunday.

HEMISTON MOTOR COMPANY MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Matthew Wethers.

Full Result Details