REMARKABLE WIN AT ASHFIELD

NEWS Sunday 5th October 2008, 8:43pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs pinched an away win in the first leg of the Scottish Cup when a heat 15 5-0 took us to a 45-44 win.

It was our thirteenth away win of the season, and didn't look likely for much of a match in which Ryan Fisher was brilliant but the other Edinburgh riders were in patchy form.

There was some controversial refereeing from the trainee in charge of the match, and we might have been excused for checking that he wasn't wearing a red-and-white scarf.

Three times heats were stopped with Monarchs in a 5-1 position, advantages we did not repeat, and supporters close to the start line confirmed that in two of these heats at least, it had been home riders who were moving.

Other contentious decisions went Tigers' way in what did not seem to us a balanced refereeing performance.

We went into the last heat trailing 40-44, with Ryan unbeaten. Parker and Ksiezak made the start, with Fisher and Ksiezak passing and repassing for second.

Ksiezak appeared to hit a bump on the tricky third bend and swing wide, catching the fence alarmingly. It seems he has a broken collar bone.

In the rerun Parker again led but stopped, and our riders were able to race past and lap him to take a dramatic win.