WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH..

NEWS Friday 13th July 2012, 11:56pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

With Theo Pijper absent on longtrack business, the Scotwaste Monarchs needed strong contributions from the rest of the side, and that's what happened with five riders paid for double figures in a 56-36 win over Berwick.

For much of the night it seemed likely to be a much closer result. The Bandits started with great determination, took a heat 2 5-1, and led 16-14 after five races. Then with a stunning spell of three successive 5-1s Monarchs took control, holding a 10-point advantage over four successive drawn heats before cutting loose again with a couple more 5-1s.

Much of the credit for the mid-match turnaround has to go to Micky Dyer who won heat 5 from Ricky Ashworth (the only defeat in his first three rides for Bandits' no. 1), then joined Andrew Tully (heat 7) and Derek Sneddon (heat 8) for these match-changing advantages.

It was also a much improved night for Matthew Wethers who won his first heat from the back, and after a couple of not so good outings, came back to win heats 12, 14 and 15! These were all exciting heats with Bellego, Complin and Ashworth all in the thick of things for the visitors. Ashworth indeed has never ridden Armadale better.

Heat 14 finished with an unfortunate pileup involving Bellego and Dyer but it looks as though no serious damage was done.

Craig Cook and Andrew Tully were excellent as always though they did drop some points this week, and there was another solid showing from Derek Sneddon.

New boy Marcel Helfer hasn't got things weighed up yet, though he did score his first point for the team.

A very good night's entertainment though, and with Theo Pijper due back next week the team are certainly in powerful form at home.

Full Result Details