Edinburgh Monarchs v Newcastle Diamonds

REPORT Friday 6th April 2012, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

A potentially tough match was comfortably won by the Scotwaste Monarchs who found the weather a more threatening opponent than Newcastle Diamonds.

The top home trio won 9 of their 10 races, and only an impressive performance by the up-and-coming Richie Worrall kept Diamonds in the hunt. Neither Mark Lemon nor Stuart Robson won a race.

The weather leading up to the match left the circuit grippy and Andrew Tully made use of that to zip round in 54.3 seconds in heat 1, just 0.4 outside Ryan Fisher’s record.

Derek Sneddon held second early on but couldn’t stop Lemon coming through. He took it easy and kept third without too much difficulty.

We’ve heard so much about Richie Worrall, the high scoring and also the controversy, but it was only really the good riding which was on show in this match. He led all the way in heat 2 with Micky Dyer comfortably second. Charles Wright was well adrift and although he closed up on Steve Worrall, he didn’t really threaten to pass.

Ludvig Lindgren made the start in heat 3 but locked up on the turn and caused his chain to come off, followed by himself. He was lucky the following riders missed him.

In the restart it was a comfortable 5-1 for the Pijper/Wethers duo.

Heat 4 was a dramatic race. Richie Worrall and Stuart Robson gated while Craig Cook was stranded at the back. Cook was quickly past Charles Wright and closed on the Diamonds’ pair entering the second lap. It looked as though both the visitors moved to keep the inside covered, Worrall was too tight and he went straight across the turn, ramming Robson into the fence.

In the rerun Monarchs were on a 5-1 right to the last bend, a great effort by Wright who didn’t allow Robson a passing chance – right to that vital last bend when he swung too wide and lost second.

Christian Henry burst through the tapes in heat 5 and was replaced by Richie Worrall, OK after the crash. A lovely first turn by Pijper nipping up the inside took him ahead but Matthew Wethers struggled at the back.

Heat 7 was a good one, and another last bend pass. This time Claes Nedermark led all the way with Cook gradually reeling him in, and coming up the inside at the last gasp for the win. Micky Dyer rode steadily for the point over Lindgren.

Richie Worrall took a TR in heat 8, and raced clear for the six points. We made matters worse for ourselves when Wright took Sneddon wide on the pits corner, which dropped him back behind Henry. Derek tried several outside runs but couldn’t get back into a scoring position.

The gap was now cut from 10 to 5, and we had another tapes exclusion in heat 9. Were the Diamonds chancing their arm, knowing they could fall back on Richie Worrall? This time it was Steve Worrall out and his brother in, but Theo Pijper won the heat from Robson to maintain our lead. Again, though, Matthew struggled.

Andrew Tully had made two good starts but heat 10 was one of his poor ones, and the best he could do was pass Lindgren to sit alongside Sneddon while Nedermark had a clear run up front.

We knew there was a black cloud coming and the ref was doing a good job keeping the riders coming out for the races. Cook beat Lemon comfortably in heat 11 and not only did Micky Dyer take another important point, he was closer to catching Lemon than conceding his position to Henry.

The rain was now coming down and Steve Worrall fell on the first bend of heat 12. We needed the rerun to take place and Theo did another excellent job negotiating the ever-wetter surface to move us 9 points clear.

The ref then headed for the pits and there was surely no way anyone wanted to continue.

Full Result Details