Micky leads heat 7 Image Credit: Steve Dixon

MICKY STARS IN BANK HOLIDAY DEFEAT

NEWS Monday 7th May 2012, 7:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Improvement over the closing heats allowed us to finish on 37 points after a hard day at the EWR, Scunthorpe - but it was another step forward for Micky Dyer.

The Aussie was competitive throughout and became our first race winner in heat 12, his seventh ride and a completely out-of-the-blue 5-1 over Richie Worrall.

The young Newcastle reserve was a late call-up for the Scorpions to replace Tero Aarnio, injured at Newcastle yesterday. Worrall is flying, totally belying his 4.31 average, and had won his first four heats with ease.

Following that success, Craig Cook then won heats 13 and 15 after very tough battles against Josh Auty.

We made a poor start to the match, though we may well have had cause for complaint. Cook said "I had no chance off gate three in my first race because it had been soaked." This was also the first-ride gate for Wethers and Tully who also struggled off the grid well behind the opposition.

Be that as it may, we didn't adapt quickly enough to a track which is nowadays heavily weighted towards the outside line. Even when we did get away, our riders were tending to ride too tight and were caught by the wide-riding Scorpions.

The happiest aspect of the afternoon was that Matthew survived a nasty crash in heat 7, though he was forced to miss a couple of rides. He had gated well from the outside but Jerran Hart ran into the back of him.

The skipper took an ambulance ride and was replaced in the rerun. He also missed his usual heat 8 rider replacement ride but returned in time for heats 10 and 14. He took a good second from the back in the latter heat.

Theo Pijper was once again solid and backed Micky to that heat 12 5-1. H also had a 4-point TR in heat 10.

Craig took 10 from his four rides after that heat 1 problem, and guest Steve Worrall gave us plenty of effort. For Andrew Tully though it was definitely another away match to forget.

He used to be a track specialist but the track has changed, and Andrew hasn't adapted.

It was our poorest performance at the Eddie Wright Raceway but at least it was another upwards step for Micky Dyer.