Workington Comets v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Saturday 16th August 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

An away win against title chasing Workington on Saturday would have been a bonus, but it never looked likely on a night of disappointing gating by our riders.

And gating was certainly important on another slick surface. Racing was probably more entertaining than in the recent Fours but still virtually every race was settled by the time the riders hit the back straight on lap one.

Derek Sneddon fell on the first lap of heat 1, and we were behind right away as Jason Doyle and Tomi Reima combined to hold off our guest Kyle Legault.

Heat 2 was one of the few examples of real passing we saw ? and it was Andrew Tully who came under Branney off the second corner, then caught and passed Charles Wright later in the heat.

We used Legault in heat 3 and shared it behind Nieminen, with Matthew Wethers just holding off Haines.

Ryan flew to the front in heat 4 and looked in sparkling form. This might have been a vulnerable heat for the Comets but Aaron stopped at the third corner just as he seemed to be getting amongst them.

Nieminen was an easy winner of heat 5, but we probably should have shared it as Kyle and Derek gated ahead of Haines. Derek moved too far off the line coming out of the second bend and left a big gap for Haines, suffering the consequences.

Six down, it was obviously going to be tough now. Ryan got an excellent win over Doyle and Reima, and he also won the next one as rider replacement. This heat 7 was a key one against Comets? third pairing but Mathhew couldn?t overcome a bad start and finished fourth.

We brought Andrew into heat 8 in place of Derek (must have been a close call with Aaron) and Tully rode a fine race, getting to the front on the wide line. Aaron again though was never in the hunt and we had missed two chances to cut the gap.

Heat 9 was exciting, though again with no passing, as Nieminen and Haines got ahead of Fisher. Ryan threw everything at Haines, inside and out, but could not squeeze through.

Andrew split Doyle and Reim in heat 10 but again Matthew was at the rear, having one of his worst nights. We were now 12 down and the only realistic option for the TR was Legault in heat 11. He initially came out in green but this was altered.

Kyle seemed to gate but again he left that second bend gap, which Stonhewer nipped through to win. We took a 5-3 but needed better than that.

We gave Derek rather than Matthew the last r/r ride but trailed behind Nieminen and John Branney, another disappointing heat.

Ryan Fisher took his fourth win from heat 13, while the other three scrapped. Stonehewer, Legault and Doyle were having a good tussle when Doyle locked up briefly and Legault fell ? the result was a Doyle exclusion.

We were 12 down so even with a TS could not retrieve the situation. Matthew finally made a start to win heat 14, with Aaron trailing disappointingly again.

Finally Kyle Legault took second in the final race, with Ryan not able to make progress on a wide line and finishing at the back.

We were well beaten, didn?t gate well enough and that was that.

Full Result Details