Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Friday 5th August 2011, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Glasgow deservedly took three points from this encounter and took a giant step towards the Premier League title which seems well within their grasp now.

They owed an immense amount to Nick Morris who gave probably the best reserve?s display ever at Armadale. To dominate the home reserves is one thing, but to run rings round several of the home top five is quite another, and that?s what Morris did.

The track was deeper than usual and several riders found it difficult to ride. You would not have thought that watching Morris who reveled in it with outstanding control and the ability to turn tight and pass coming out of the turns ? the essence of a good speedway rider.

For the home side, Kevin Wolbert and Andrew Tully were both excellent. Wolbert pulled off a couple of superb second bends to squeeze outside Joe Screen (heat 1) and Aaron Summers (heat 15) when there seemed to be little space. Tully was hugely impressive throughout and only dropped points in the final race.

The others were below par though each of Matthew Wethers, Kalle Katajisto and Craig Cook contributed something. Katajisto was unlucky to have a puncture in heat 8 which he initially led, though it did seem that Morris was passing him anyway.

The reserves though struggled throughout, coming down a few times, and both withdrew from the meeting before the end.

The Tigers simply needed to provide adequate support for Morris in order to win. Guest Summers had a fine meeting but the others were up and down, doing just enough, with Screen looking quite uncomfortable at times.

Monarchs led at three separate stages of the match and with three heats to go any result still seemed possible, but the Glasgow men blocked out Wolbert on the first corner of heat 13 to take an advantage there, and a maximum victory in heat 14 ensured victory.

Struggling or not, it was surprising that Screen did not take on the responsibility of trying to earn the fourth point in heat 15. It was duly lost.

Full Result Details