SCOTWASTE MONARCHS SCRAPE A FORTUNATE WIN

NEWS Saturday 13th September 2014, 9:37pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs very nearly stumbled at the last hurdle and were fortunate to even win their final home Premier League match against Newcastle, eventually triumphing by 48-41. It was a long night when far too much went wrong.

Alex Harkess said “It was a very disappointing night. Everyone was making mistakes, our riders just as much as theirs, and our top two just could not get out of the start. The one exception was Max who was tremendous, and Justin also when he made the gate was as quick as anybody.”

Sadly for Newcastle, Stuart Robson was ruled out after coming down in heat 3, and there’s no denying that this cost them a surprise victory. Their reserves were required to take 14 rides and while they contributed vital points, they obviously did not match Robson’s contribution.

Monarchs did not give their usual solid display but they did have great performances from Max Fricke (14) and Justin Sedgmen (10+1) in particular to thank for just making it over the line.

Max won his first four races and joined Justin to keep Danny King at the back in the final race, won by Lewis Kerr. Justin had crucial wins in heats 8 and 10.

It was a disastrous night by Craig Cook’s standards, even though he won an excellent heat one from the back against King. He inadvertently came off the track in heat 6, and after getting caught on the outside in heat 10 and falling, he was controversially excluded.

We just could not shake the Diamonds off. Max’s third win in heat 9 with Steve third put us 7 ahead for the first time. Then came Cook’s exclusion, with Justin Sedgmen mercifully beating Kerr in the rerun.

We shared heat 11 behind King, and then took a big step forward through Max (fourth win) and Derek against the visiting reserves in heat 12. Craig and Sam managed to keep Lindgren at the back in heat 13, but the fat was back in the fire after heat 14.

Lewis Kerr won it but our pair made a mess of the opening lap and could not stop Konopka cutting the gap back to 7. It was with great relief that we saw our last heat pair share the race with Danny King, no less, at the back.

It certainly wasn’t our best meeting or our best performance, but at least it gets us to the end of our home league programme with maximum points!