Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Friday 20th April 2007, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs displayed their best form of the season in giving Glasgow their first Premier Trophy defeat of the season. The 47-42 win didn't do justice to Monarchs' superiority.

Having been shown Shane Parker?s press comments that Monarchs are ?not good enough? to win, the team set about the Tigers from the first heat with Ronnie Correy giving a magnificent lead.

Bad luck in the shape of two lost chains plus another Tully stoppage prevented an even bigger victory against a visiting side which had a soft centre and relied on their reserves backing their top two to keep them in the hunt.

The first heat saw Ronnie Correy cut back under the faster-starting Stancl to move ahead into the third turn. He raced clear and did the fastest time of the season, with Henrik Moller also putting pressure on Stancl and Smethills a long way at the rear.

Heat 2 looked like a certain 5-1 from the first bend, with McAllan trying to make up ground but getting into difficulties and falling. Unfortunately late in the race while comfortably clear of Dicken, Andrew Tully shed a chain and came down heavily on the pits corner.

Shane Parker, keen to make his press predictions come true, won heat 3 easily but Tessari and Lawson comfortably shut out Ksiezak.

Once again in heat 4 a maximum advantage looked on the cards with Matthew Wethers leading from Sneddon, but Derek never settled and was caught by McAllan and Leverington in turn.

We might have been 10 up at this point, but the gap was just three. Nevertheless the signs were already favourable.

Lawson actually passed Stancl on the first lap of heat 5, but Tigers? no. 1 turned back and regained the lead in another shared heat.

Moller and Correy took the lead in heat 6 and Ronnie was happy to slot inside his partner for a very easy 5-1 to extend our lead.

Tigers gained their first race advantage in heat 7, Parker beating Wethers and Sneddon falling t gift the out-of-touch Ksiezak a point.

We lost another chance to increase the lead in heat 8. Henrik Moller had no difficulty winning but Andrew Tully had problems right from the start and didn?t complete a lap. McAllan kept up the chase to no avail and Smethills was gifted his only point.

Heat 9 looked like a major chance to increase the lead but Lawson and Tessari fluffed the start as Dicken and Leverington went ahead. The Aussie came a spectacular cropper on the pits corner but he cleared the track to leave Dicken his victory chance. The big reserve did well, though William Lawson?s efforts to catch him were disappointing for the team?s no. 2 rider.

Now it was Correy v Parker, both unbeaten. It proved to be no contest as the American dominated the heat, and Parker had his hands full holding off Moller. We were now 33-26 ahead.

Another big Tigers? scalp was taken in heat 11 when Wethers hit the drive on the inside of the second turn and zipped past Stancl. Sneddon though couldn?t catch Dicken.

We had seen little of Lawson so far, and it got worse for William as he trailed behind Parker and McAllan for a disappointing 1-5 in heat 12. The gap was three again and Tigers were right back in it.

The enthusiastic Dicken was given a ride in heat 13, but this again was a Correy-dominated heat as he easily beat Stancl. Matthew had a more uncomfortable ride but he took third place.

A 5-point lead meant we needed a shared heat 14 to win. It was a scrappy first corner as all four headed for the outside. Ksiezak made his only start of the night but went right across the turn, bringing down Tessari who was on an outside run, while Sneddon and McAllan also clashed with McAllan falling.

All four was a fair decision though Tigers didn?t see it that way, re-igniting their McGregor paranoia.

In the rerun we saw a terrific sweep round the boards by Tessari, with precious little room, to go ahead. McAllan came into second ahead of Sneddon but slid off going into the pits corner, right in front of Sneddon who went down with a jolt.

This looked quite a bad one and caused a lengthy delay. McAllan limped off with a foot problem while Sneddon was eventually taken off in an ambulance, possibly with back and leg injuries. We await news on his condition.

In the rerun Ksiezak made a decent start but was passed on either side by Tessari and Tully, who raced to an untroubled 5-1 to clinch the win.

In the final heat, Correy from gate one got another lovely start and seemed set to go ahead when he shed another damned chain and came down. A fortunate closing 5-1 for the Tigers which didn?t disguise the fact that they were very much second best on the night.

Full Result Details