Stoke Potters v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 13th September 2009, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Stoke has been a good track for us over the years, but not this time as we failed to capitalise on a good start.

The track was watered late and several riders found that the outside, in the shade of the air fence, was very slippery. It probably had as much effect on Potters as Monarchs because several of the riders like the outside sweep.

Having seen them on Friday we might have suspected that Stoke were a poor side, but of course they are quite different on their own track.

Our guest Paul Clews was a late arrival, coming in as the riders were on parade and having to miss heat 1. This didn?t affect matters as Aaron Summers came in and stormed to victory in the fastest time of the day, with Ryan Fisher holding off the home riders.

A great start, and heat 2 looked promising too. Craig Branney hit the tapes and went off 15 metres, then Byron slipped up the inside to the front and Aaron came round the wide line. However he went into the muck on the second bend and slipped off, earning an exclusion.

It got worse as Byron led the rerun by a huge margin but slipped off on the inside of the pits bend. He was so far ahead that he was back on his bike when Kristiansen caught up. The Dane was not impeded but the referee unaccountably stopped the race, and once he had done that it had to be a 5-0 to Stoke.

That was a huge turnaround from what we should have had out of the race, and we never really recovered from the blow.

Ryan Fisher was our first r/r in heat 3 but it was Jakobsen away fast for a win. Surprisingly Complin trailed in a poor last.

A good start from Michal Rajkowski earned him a heat 4 win with Ksiezak, not in good form these days, just holding off Aaron Summers. It was enough to give us a 1-point lead.

However we saw the real Complin in heat 5 as he led all the way. Fisher was trying to make up ground but he wasn?t attentive enough to the challenge from Jakobsen, who eventually passed him. Paul Clews was nowhere.

We lost heat 6 as well, though Rajkowski?s second place was a good one under a strong challenge from Madsen.

Stoke led by 5 but we managed to take advantage of their weak third pairing through a 5-1 from Rajkowski and Wethers.

Heat 8 looked promising too but we missed out chance here. Madsen gated and though it seemed several times that Clews would pass him, he never did.

Jakobsen and Complin were a strong pair and even though Michal slipped inside Complin at one point, it was an easy home 5-1 in the end.

Bunyan and Madsen took 4 from the next race with Clews? pass of Madsen limiting the damage. We were now 7 down and it didn?t look like our day.

We expected 5 from heat 11 but even though Clews passed Ksiezak, Fisher didn?t manage it and we had only knocked two off the Stoke advantage.

Heat 12 had an unexpected result. We managed to keep Jakobsen at the back, with Matthew pulling off a great last lap pass, but reserve Kristiansen won the heat having previously done very little.

We were still 5 down and the remaining heats were not all that promising. Bunyan won heat 13 from Fisher with Rajkowski just holding off Ksiezak, who fell on the last lap.

Kristiansen came in to heat 14 but was back at the back with Complin winning, and at 5 down we needed to share the last heat to take a point. With Bunyan and Complin in, it didn?t look likely, and it never looked like happening.

Full Result Details