20 POINTS TO MAKE UP

NEWS Thursday 4th October 2012, 10:11pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs fought hard tonight but didn't have much luck, going down 35-55 at Ipswich. However if we can track a full team in the second leg we will be optimistic about reaching the final.

The biggest misfortune befell Jozsef Tabaka, expected to be a trump card at reserve. He crashed challenging for the lead in heat 2, and he was struggling with a painful wrist thereafter. He expects to be fit to ride on Friday night.

We made a slow start, and guest Corey Gathercole was a long way back in heat one. Byron Bekker gave us a boost by winning the rerun of heat two, but we were already 10 down after four races.

We then saw an excellent heat 5, a much improved Gathercole just being pipped by top Witch North on the last bend. Then Andrew Tully won heat 6 in the fastest time of the meeting, and a rejuvenated Matthew Wethers won an exciting heat 7 from Tresarrieu.

Tully also won heat 9, North's only defeat, but we then lost three 4-2s. Heat 13 was our only advantage of the night, an excellent win by Gathercole, with Andrew Tully catching Lanham right on the line.

Wethers took another good second in heat 14 and it was disappointing to lose a last race 5-1.

We are far from out of it though, and if we can track all our own riders in the second leg, watch out for a big effort to pull back the deficit.