Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

REPORT Friday 12th September 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Newcastle with three ex-Monarchs looked like stiff opposition, but it didn?t turn out that way in spite of a shock start.

Derek Sneddon failed to leave the start in heat 1, and William Lawson had a poor first Armadale ride on his comeback as he trailed round following Sean Stoddart and Josef Franc.

The sign of things to come? Well not really ? the exact opposite of things to come actually because Monarchs then hammered in a remarkable 8 successive 5-1s of their own.

What was also remarkable was the number of times that Newcastle riders made the start, and that might be more of a problem in the return fixture on Sunday. At Armadale, it wasn?t a problem.

The reserves moved easily through early in heat 2 past early leader Hart, then Andrew Tully Andrew Matthew Wethers both pulled off good passes on George Stancl in heat 3, with Jason King falling after being ahead initially.

Next overtake was Ryan Fisher round the outside of Henry in heat 4, with Aaron Summers coming through on the inside later in the race.

Josef Franc seemed likely to be a more formidable opponent in heat 5, but this time Derek Sneddon led the way with an outside pass. Andrew Tully nearly ran into Franc, lost a lot of ground but still came back for another outside overtake in an amazing ride.

So that was 21-9 and fears of a difficult night were receding fast.

Could Lawson improve on a disappointing heat 1? Yes he could, a fast start in heat 6 and he was happy to sit behind Derek Sneddon for another 5-1.

Fisher and Wethers were soon past Stancl in heat 7 and we had yet another 5-1 in heat 8, though it took 3 attempts.

First time Derek Sneddon led with Summers trying to catch Stoddart, and looking like he might just about have done it when the race was stopped due to faller Richard Juul.

We then had an unsatisfactory start and finally the 5-1 was taken easily.

Tully and Fisher then headed Henry and the score after 9 heats was 41-13, game well and truly over.

Jason King has been top man for the Diamonds this year and we saw why as he won heat 10 easily, stopping the run of 5-1s with Diamonds second race win.

Back to the 5-1s, Wethers and Fisher this time, then we gave William Lawson a rider replacement outing in heat 12, clearly to try to speed up his return to full confidence.

He gated well but King on a TR was round him fairly easily at the first corner to take 6. William was out again in heat 13 but missed the start this time, with Fisher losing his maximum as Christian Henry took his first win.

George Stancl didn?t come out for heat 14, another 5-1, and once again we chose to give Lawson an outing in heat 15.

This time it did pay off as Tully completed his paid 15 and Lawson took a paid win ahead of Franc and King. It might not be quite the turning of the corner yet for William but every little helps.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Andrew Tully.

Full Result Details