DISAPPOINTING ONE-POINT DEFEAT

NEWS Friday 7th June 2013, 11:10pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs made their quest for a top six Playoff place a bit harder by tumbling to a one-point defeat against Redcar.

We knew it was going to be a tricky match against the Bears with Theo Pijper missing, but over the first ten heats as we built up a 12-point advantage, it seemed we would get away with it.

However things went badly wrong from that point. All we really needed was one decent ride by anyone in support of Craig Cook over these last five races, but no-one could come up with it. Other than Craig, only Jozsef Tabaka with a second place in heat 12 managed to beat an opponent after heat 10.

Redcar took their chances and grew in confidence as they saw that we were faltering. They took an 8-1 in heat 11, followed by a 4-2, and a 5-1 in heat 14, as well as sharing heats 13 and 15 behind Cook. Reserve Carl Wilkinson played his part, Micky Dyer scored 8 and Matej Kus remarkably won two races, while looking very poor in his other two. Their big two of Ostergaard and Summers gained the results they needed in the two big races.

We’ve been relying on Craig and Theo for too long at home, and while this was definitely a great night for Max Fricke, there weren’t enough points from the others on a disappointingly slick track.

Max really came to the fore with wins in his first three races, pushing past Max Dilger in heat 2 and heading Aaron Summers in heat 4. We’ll remember this as the first night Max has really shown his true colours at Armadale.

However for Claus Vissing the night was a disaster. He certainly didn’t enjoy much luck. He was second to Max in heat 4 but got too close to the youngster, swung wide and fell. In heat 11, something of a turning point, he actually passed TR Ostergaard up the back straight to take the lead, but the heat was stopped because Wilkinson had fallen, with an all four back decision.

This was an important decision by referee Dowling and one that supporters on the home straight felt was wrong. Instead of a 4-4, we lost a 1-8 in the rerun when Claus went into the tapes.

Even though Claus had only scored 1 point, with no obvious candidate to ride with Craig in the final race, Claus was given the chance. Off gate one he gated quite well and was briefly in second, but lost position on the third bend. That was that.

Redcar thus consolidate their position near the top of the table, and we suffer a setback. There’s a long way to go.