We got a last heat 5-1 Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

DIAMONDS A POINT UP

REPORT Friday 14th June 2013, 11:18pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

After the heroics of Tuesday night on Sky the Scotwaste Monarchs were disappointed tonight to lose the first leg of their KO Cup quarter final to Newcastle by 44-45.

In all honesty it looked for most of the meeting that the deficit would be quite a bit more, as Newcastle consistently outgated the home riders on what was again a slick surface.

At one time Monarchs trailed by 11 points, edging closer towards the end of the meeting.

In normal circumstances a full strength Monarchs team would travel to Newcastle feeling they had a chance of overturning the deficit, but after a tough contest there is damage to men and machines.

The worst affected is Jozsef Tabaka who was on the outside as three riders went into turn three in heat 14, and hit the fence very hard. He was badly shaken and unlikely to ride for the remainder of the weekend (he was due in Hungary on Saturday).

We already have Theo Pijper struggling with the pain from his broken ribs, and he is due to race in Norway tomorrow before he travels to Newcastle.

We also had Max Fricke taking a purler tonight, in some pain and with a wrecked bike. So it will be a patched-up Monarchs' squad which rides on Sunday.

Tonight's match started with a thrilling heat between Cook and Tully, but things started to go wrong when Fricke clipped Kerr's back wheel on the second bend of heat two and came down heavily after trying to hang on.

That was the end of bike no. 1 for Max, who was excluded even though Kerr had not really been in control when the incident happened. It was the first of a number of difficult decisions for the referee, mostly racing incidents other than heat 3 when Christian Henry earned an exclusion for a shoulder charge on Tabaka.

The Robson / Tully pairing was as impressive as any we have seen at Armadale for a long time, and they took a 5-1 from heat 5. We also saw how impressive first season PL rider Lewis Kerr is – he won two heats and helped Tully to a heat 8 5-1.

That put us 11 down at that point, a disastrous position, but the team as usual showed fighting spirit over the remaining heats.

Even Craig Cook wasn't unbeatable this week, losing to Robson and Lindgren in spite of terrific efforts on a track which he was unhappy with.

However Theo Pijper came into his own in the closing stages, coolly heading Robson in heat 11, and Claus Vissing after another night of struggle managed to win heat 12.

Heat 14 proved to be a disaster for Tabaka, who couldn't ride in the rerun after Lindgren was excluded. Fricke won the heat.

We scored our only 5-1 of the night in the final race with Cook winning easily and Pijper superbly cutting under Robson and Worrall to take second after a tough race.

Monarchs had Fricke, Vissing and Pijper excluded in the early stages, while Newcastle's Henry, Tully and Lindgren suffered the same fate at various stages. Mostly they were tough decisions in a hard-fought match. Unfortunately it was the Monarchs' men and machines who came off worst.

We should give a mention to Josh Bates who rode with spirit and skill as Mitchell Davey's replacement. James Sarjeant rides on Sunday but we hope to see Josh again.

We will head for Newcastle on Sunday to give it our best shot.