Glasgow Tigers v Edinburgh Monarchs

REPORT Sunday 25th March 2012, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We were doing so well for ten heats, keeping apparently a firm grip on the match and leading 31-29. And that was without Andrew Tully having scored a point.

Once Andrew got going who knows what lay ahead? Well, we know now – four bad heats and a shared one later we had slumped to a 14-point defeat and were left to lick our wounds.

The favourable part of the match started right away, with Derek Sneddon making a perfect gate in heat 1. Joe Screen was at the back early on but passed Andrew and his partner Mason Campton, without really challenging Derek.

Meanwhile Andrew eventually worked his way past Campton, only to slide off entering the last bend. Campton fell as well, it looked independently, but he remounted quicker for the point.

Charles Wright was fastest away in the next heat but had problems turning on the 3rd/4th bend and was passed by Ksiezak. Micky was a fair bit back but again there was a last bend faller, this time Mudgway, which allowed us to share the heat.

Theo Pijper made an excellent gate in heat 3 and though James Grieves was close, he didn’t have too much trouble winning. Matthew Wethers was well clear of the Tigers’ debutant O’Malley.

No problems for Grajczonek winning heat 4, and another decent ride by Charles Wright in second. Craig Cook was tentative going in to the bar bend and dropped to the back, but he recovered third by going round Ksiezak.

We held a two-point lead courtesy of heat 3, but Andrew’s first bend fall in heat 5 meant we lost that one, Derek coming second to Grieves.

That was the scores level and we shared heat 6 behind Screen, with a decent point for Micky ahead of his compatriot Campton.

Pijper and Wethers took the minor places in heat 7 behind Grajczonek, though Matthew had to work hard for the point.

We went ahead again in heat 8, Derek’s second race win. We were on a 5-1 for a while but Ksiezak passed Wright.

We shared heat 9 behind Grieves and heat 10 behind Screen, and although since the early races we were making much impression on the home heat leaders, we were blocking out the others successfully enough and led 31-29.

We needed a bit more from our own heat leaders but instead they went the other way. Ksiezak came in to heat 11, and headed Andrew while Derek fell. This was a very disappointing ride by our no. 1.

Heat 11 was just as bad – Mudgway this time featured in a 5-1, getting the better of a hard fought race against Matthew who just wasn’t getting out of the gate at any stage in this match.

Suddenly we were six down with heats 13 and 15 still to come. The picture had changed in two bad heats.

Heat 13 was just what we expected, but we hoped we might get something back in heat 14. Wright did extremely well to force ahead out of the second turn, but Theo who had had a good match up to that point, could not get out of fourth place.

Theo and Derek got tangled up in the nominated race, but it was never going to be anything other than a 1-5.

It had all gone wrong in heats 11 and 12 and while our bottom 4 totalled 27 (excellent), the top three had only managed 11 which will not do.

Full Result Details