Newcastle Diamonds v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 31st October 2010, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

All summer we have been watching the Scotwaste Monarchs raising their performances to spectacular levels to win so many league matches, but this was not something they could manage in the second leg of the KO Cup Final.

We had won by 20 points at Rye House and 22 at King?s Lynn in this same competition. In all honesty, even though the loss of Andrew Tully was a great blow, the cup should have been there for the taking given the problems Newcastle had in the two legs with their number 6 position.

Adam Roynon crashed out last Friday, and Simon Lambert withdrew on Sunday due to the effects of a crash the night before in the NLRC. That left Derek Sneddon and Adam McKinna only as backup to their powerful top three, and opened the door for our more solid team.

We couldn?t take the chance though, and it was an opportunity lost. Heats 3 and 4 were the ones which cost us, and we never regained the ground we lost there.

The track seemed to be dry but quite rideable, with the outside line being the faster one, as Kenni Larsen opened the meeting with a win followed home by Ryan Fisher and William Lawson, who passed Derek Sneddon.

William then won heat two though Ashley Morris lost out in the battle for third as McKinna came through and eventually finished second. Lambert did not look impressive.

So far so good but heat 3 went all wrong as both Wolbert and Katajisto toiled and were passed by Sneddon, behind race winner Bach. We certainly had been looking for Kevin to carry the fight to the opposition but he looked slow and tentative.

Stuart Robson, who rather displayed the gap which still exists between Elite and Premier Leagues, swept to a win in heat 4 which we looked like sharing, till Matthew slowed up so badly that he was passed by Adam McKinna. It had only taken four heats to lose the lead.

Heat 5 saw a Newcastle heat leader beaten at last with Ryan Fisher riding as good a heat as he has at this track to beat Bach. However disappointingly William Lawson, who had looked reasonably impressive in scoring paid 7 from 3 rides, finished at the back behind Derek Sneddon. In hindsight, we had already lost the points which were to cost us the KO Cup.

Ashley Morris slipped past Lambert during heat 6, a good point, though Lambert then pulled out of both the race and the meeting.

Robson won heats 7 and 8, with Newcastle fielding only one rider in heat 8, and we were still just one down looking to regain lost ground. Bach won heat 9 and this time Wethers and Lawson pushed Sneddon to the back.

We saw the best of Kalle in heat 10 as he hit the front and never allowed Larsen a chance to catch him. Wolbert briefly held second but at least we had an advantage and were back in front again on aggregate.

Newcastle reversed that again as Robson beat Fisher with McKinna ahead of Morris in heat 11.

We had been eying heat 12 and fancying a 5-1 which would have been a big help, but it was Derek Sneddon who took the lead. Deek can still gate, and it took Wolbert a couple of laps to pass him. By then it was too late for Lawson to follow suit, but at least the 4-2 had us a point up again.

The problem was we now hit heat 13, always a likely tough one for us. Ryan tried hard to move Stuart Robson off his line but he couldn?t do it, and the Diamonds too a 5-1.

Heat 14 was inevitably a win for Bach from Katajisto and Lawson, and that left us needing a 5-1 from the last race to snatch an unlikely aggregate victory. We had left it too late.

It was Fisher and Katajisto up against Larsen and Bach. Ryan was off gate one and made an excellent start, but Kalle was at the back. Ryan did remarkably well because he lost his steel shoe and had to wave his foot above ground to keep his balance, but he completed the four laps in front. However Newcastle had the cup.

A three point margin was frustrating and there were so many chances over the two legs to have reversed such a small margin. But it?s history now and we have now been beaten finalists four times in the competition, against three times victorious.

Full Result Details