ELEVEN POINT LEAD FOR ASHFIELD

REPORT Friday 10th June 2011, 0:59am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs made a great start in the Super Cup first leg, had a 'blip' in the middle and finished strongly to leave the Super Cup well balanced with a 52-41 lead for Sunday.

There was a very good 'buzz' about Armadale witha good spirit on the terraces and some interesting action on the track.

Monarchs' no. 1 Kevin Wolbert was the star of the show with a superb 15-point maximum, and when Monarchs took a 24-12 lead after heat 6 it did seem that we were on the way to a big advantage.

From the early stages, a special mention should go to Dudley's Tom Perry for a heat 2 win on his first Armadale ride.

A 12-point lead looked promising but course that was when things went wrong. The dreaded TR intruded on proceedings with James Grieves winning heat 7 for a 6-pointer, then in heat 8 Matthew Wethers unaccountably fell gifting Tigers a 5-1.

Heat 9 was a bit of a disaster too; Monarchs were on a 4-2 with Andrew Tully getting the better of Aaron Summers, when Kalle Katajisto fell making a big effort to catch Aaron. The rerun went to Summers and the gap was down to 29-28!

Undaunted, Monarchs took a 4-2 from heat 10 with Wolbert winning again in spite of a strong challenge from Grieves, and Wethers passing Henry.

Cook brilliantly won heat 11 from the back, and Tully took heat 12, so Monarchs led by just 3 points with three heats left.

Heat 13 looked like a big one, but Wolbert and Cook made it look easy as they headed Screen and Summers.

Heat 14 also went our way when Grieves fell on the first turn, almost running into Dicken. James removed himself from the track, discussed the incident with the Monarchs track staff and with Dicken beating Rajkowski, we took another 5-1!

Of course you can never discount Grieves and he led the final race, but the irresistible Wolbert surged down the back straight to go ahead. The Tigers' pair held Cook at the back, and that left us with a lead of 11 points.

It could have been more, but we had to be happy with how the night went.

Full Result Details