GUTSY MONARCHS MAKE THE FINAL

NEWS Friday 24th July 2009, 1:11am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

In spite of the loss of Andrew Tully with a hip/back injury in his first race, the Scotwaste Monarchs pulled together to make it to the final of the Premier Trophy.

They eventually won the second leg 52-43 against Scunthorpe, going through by 98-87 on aggregate, but for much of the night the outcome was in doubt. Scunthorpe were level on aggregate after 5 heats as Monarchs struggled to make any starts. Magnus Karlsson was as dominant as on his previous visit and there was support from David Howe, Simon Lambert and Carl Wilkinson for the visitors.

However all the five Monarchs who remained after the Tully injury did very well, none more so than Byron Bekker who rode with great spirit for 6+2.

Ryan Fisher recovered from going through the tapes in heat 1 to score well, Matthew Wethers was solid as a rock, Michal Rajkowski scored his usual crucial points and Aaron Summers came good in a big way to top the scorechart.

Monarchs will meet King's Lynn in the final.

The signing of 20 year old German rider Max Dilger to replace Thomas H Jonasson was announced and there will be an interview on the website later in the weekend.

Andrew Tully will not ride in the Fours at Workington on Saturday, but has treatment planned for Monday and hopes to be riding at Birmingham on Wednesday.

Full Result Details