Somerset Rebels v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Wednesday 15th September 2010, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

There wasn?t a lot to race for in our final league match at Somerset but we still turned in another good display to take a draw and two points.

Ryan Fisher again gave a tremendous performance and he just seems to be getting better. Matthew Wethers is always good at Somerset and in spite of two very poor gates he still took 10 points (including the vital point in heat 15) while Kalle was also excellent with his 10 from 4. He had ridden a match at Somerset in 2007.

We have become used to making a strong start and this was no different, Matthew and Ryan racing away from the opening Rebels? pair of Hefenbrock and Hawkins.

William Lawson managed to get into second in heat 2 but the home guest Simon Lambert was a good winner, and he was to prove a good choice standing in for James Holder.

Scores were levelled in heat 2 as Kevin missed the gate and Kalle split the powerful home pair of Masters and Parker. Parker didn?t look very quick.

Andrew Tully did look quick though as he easily won heat 4 in the fastest time of the night. Lambert beat Lawson again for the point.

The power pairs clashed in heat 5 but again it was no problem for Fisher who won easily. Matthew took third ahead of Parker with Masters between the Monarchs.

We were two points up but Somerset reversed that as Andrew could not improve on third place against their opening pair, a rather disappointing result.

We were on a 5-1 in heat 7 with Katajisto leading, but Gathercole came past Wolbert rather easily on lap three, and the scores were levelled.

Heat 8 was entertaining though Hawkins won easily. Matthew had completely muffed the start and had to work his way past Lambert while protecting William Lawson in second spot. He did it in style for a shared reace.

Parker got going in heat 9 to take a win but Andrew did well to hold off Masters. That put Rebels in front again.

Next race winner was Hefenbrock who headed Kalle and Kevin, but the lead swung our way again in heat 11, a big 5-1 from Matthew and Ryan over Gathercole, who was rather subdued.

Lo and behold the lead swung back to Somerset in the next one. Masters won it but Kevin was lying second until he gifted third to Lambert, who had again pushed William Lawson to the back.

Fisher continued to dominate with a comfortable heat 13 win, but Andrew?s efforts could not carry him past the home pair.

Kalle completed a great [personal show by winning heat 14 from Parker. William tried very hard on the outside line to get round Parker and Lambert for at least a point, but he found Parker justa bit too crafty.

So we went into the last heat two points down, and fielded Fisher and Wethers against Hefenbrock and Masters. Matthew had the best gate, no. 4, but got a terrible start as Fisher romped off again. Hefenbrock looked dangerous as he surged into the pits corner, but Ryan had enough on the outside to stay ahead. Meanwhile Matthew got on the tail of Masters and pulled off a very clever pass, going in wide and turning back up the inside to secure the point.

A fair enough result and a good finish to our most impressive league campaign yet.