Edinburgh Monarchs v Rye House Rockets

REPORT Friday 5th June 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Rye House always provide us with tough opposition at Armadale, and that proved to be the case once more in a 50-42 victory.

Edinburgh?s scorechart led from the top while the Rockets? main scoring came from the bottom. Our opening pair outscored theirs by 29-7 but at the other end our reserves were walloped 18-3!

You could also call it a Tale of Two Guests. We got in first and had Jason Lyons booked before Robert Mear picked up his injury, which sent the Rockets off to call in Mark Lemon. Basically we won the match because of this.

The importance of the choices was apparent as early as heat 1. Mark Lemon shot off gate four but Wethers worked his way through on the inside in the first couple of laps. Jason Lyons was pressing too and he also passed Lemon late in the heat.

Silver and Bowen gated in heat 2 with Sean Stoddart falling on the first corner. Aaron Summers moved through the pack and got his nose in front, but Silver in his first Armadale ride came back on the outside to establish a winning advantage.

Rockets won another heat in the next one, and it looked as though Bowen and Allen would take 5 points until Andrew Tully found a good inside line off the last bend to snatch second away from Allen. Bowen was in this heat because Chris Neath broke the teapes.

That levelled the scores and a close match was certainly in prospect. Wethers showed his excellent form by winning heat 4 in which Sundstrom also made his Armadale debut in good style. Silver beat Stoddart again and clearly Sean was toiling against a team with no weak links.

After a bad first ride, Rajkowski swept to the front from gate 4 to win heat 5, and he was joined later by Andrew Tully who slipped inside Lemon. Wethers and Lyons took a second 5-1 from heat 6 and now Monarchs were 8 ahead.

The next three heats were shared. Sundstrom won heat 7 with Neath again failing to get on the scoresheet, and while Wethers won heat 8, Summers stopped on the first bend. Tully won heat 9 after sweeping to the front from gate 4, in the fastest time of the night, but inconsistent Rajkowski was tailed off again.

The home team were not at their best, but the opening pair was, and again Wethers and Lyons took 5 from heat 10, though this time Neath did mount a challenge.

Lyons was in heat 11 as rider replacement, with Stoddart taking his third ride and Lemon on a TR. Lyons smoothly glided home again to limit the TR to 4 points, and Stoddart was at least on the pace though again beaten by Silver.

The gap came down to 8 as Neath finally made a start to head Tully, with Summers disappointing at the back even though he had been ahead of Bowen at one point.

Rockets were definitely in with a chance of a point. Rajkowski was the r/r in heat 13 and what would he do this time? He likes gate 4 and off he went, leading Sundstrom all the way. Lyons was at the back on the first lap but rounded Lemon and put in a late challenge to the Swede in an entertaining ride.

Had he passed him of course we could have been hit by another TR. Heat 14 was bad enough as we saw the ?other? Rajkowski and the continuation of Summers? disappointing night. Silver and Neath had no problems taking a 5-1.

We were now just 6 up, ensuring a win but requiring a heat advantage from the last race to take all three points. Matthew Wethers, who knows all about last heat deciders against Rockets, led from the gate in spite of a strong chase by Neath, and Lyons comfortably made sure of the third ahead of Sundstrom.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Matthew Wethers.

Full Result Details