FANTASTIC VICTORY AT THE OTA

NEWS Tuesday 11th June 2013, 11:03pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs pulled off one of their best-ever away victories tonight by 46-44 against the powerful Somerset Rebels, providing Sky viewers with a sensational speedway match.

It's hard to know where to begin on a night when we pulled back from 8 points down to win in a last heat decider, another amazing win by the incredible Craig Cook.

John Campbell said "They were all heroes but none more so that Theo Pijper who was riding with two broken ribs after his Longtrack crash at the weekend."

The last heat alone provided a mass of breathtaking drama. Going into the heat 2 ahead, we tracked Cook and Tabaka who held a 4-2 advantage coming out of the second bend. Going down the straight Grajczonek and Tabaka clashed, Jozsef coming off heavily. It was hard to see without the Tv replays what precisely happened, but Jozsef was excluded (thankfully uninjured).

In the rerun, Craig made the gate again but in swinging wide round the 3rd/4th turn, he lost the lead to Doyle. Incredibly, a lap later he took it back again with an inside pass, and this time there were no mistakes.

That fellow Cook, what a man. Nerves of steel. But then the whole team we great. Derek Sneddon started with a second place as Cookie struggled in heat one, and finished with an awarded paid win after he had tried to team up with Craig in heat 11. Josh Grajczonek was adjudged to have brought him down, and in all honesty both that and heat 15 decisions looked dubious. But at least they evened out.

Theo Pijper was remarkable, struggled in his second race but bounced back with five points in his last two rides. He looked a likely choice for heat 15 but perhaps in view of his injury it was reasonable that he sat it out.

Jozsef Tabaka showed a brilliant awareness of the lines you can ride on the Somerset track and was perhaps the most entertaining rider in scoring paid 10.

Claus Vissing battled all the way and did a bit of passing, unlucky to be pipped in heat 13 by Doyle after pushing past him earlier in the race.

And what can you say about the boy Fricke? Some superb racing on a track which must have reminded him of home. That heat 14 5-1 with Jozsef was simply classic, from the back.

Josh Bates battled manfully against a team with no real weak links and will stand in again for us on Friday.

It was a match to remember and to be re-lived either in the memory or on DVD! And the Somerset fans, while disappointed, we're very sporting. Quite probably we will be seeing them again when we get to the business end of the season.

Full Result Details