TEN POINT WIN IN A THRILLER

NEWS Monday 4th May 2015, 6:08pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs turned in a great display to win 50-40 at Scunthorpe today in a very hard-fought and entertaining encounter.

It was a real team performance with the heat leaders all in excellent form, but some of the most crucial points coming from the reserves.

Scunthorpe haven't been in great form so far this season but with the revitalised Alex Davies flying they gave us a real run for it today, and every point was hotly contested. It was only over the last few races that we took a grip on the match.

Scunny isn't Sam Masters' favourite track but he was determined to beat the bogey. However Josh Auty was a comfortable winner of the opening race, coming off gate 4 which proved to be easily the best as it often is here.

We were pleasantly surprised to see our reserves get to the front in heat 2, though Lunna eventually passed Rob Branford. Great win for Max Clegg though.

Heat 3 was a very disappointing 1-5 loss with Kevin Wolbert at least challenging Davies and Wilkinson but Justin Sedgmen miles back.

That gave the Scorpions a four point lead, and off gate 4 Theo Pijper made the gate in the next race. However not many people can ride the boards there like Craig Cook and he swept to the front.

Rob Branford took an excellent point from Lunna and we were two down.

Sam took advantage of gate 4 to lead heat 5 from the hard-charging Davies, while Max also rode a great race, only being passed by Wilkinson on the last lap.

Gate four again provided the winner in heat 6 as Craig had to come from the back to pass Auty but could not catch Davies, the first time Craig has dropped a point here in our colours since 2012.

That made the score 16-20 but after that terrible opening ride, Sedgy was the latest to find gate four advantageous and he romped home backed by Kevin to level the scores.

Kevin was out again in heat 8 and won it - yes, off gate four. This time Rob lost out for the point to his rival Lunna.

Heat 9 was a Cook classic after another missed gate. He took three laps to catch and pass Wilkinson, then in a thrilling finish he pipped Davies right on the line.

Kevin had gate 4 again in heat 10 and again made no mistake against Auty and Pijper, but Sedgy was at the back. At 30-30 it looked like going all the way to the wire.

Crucially Nike Lunna came in late to heat 11 but suffered a 2-minute exclusion. He went off 15 metres and actually caught Branford, only for Rob to come back and regain third. Sam won the heat and we were ahead for the first time, 34-32.

What a great job Wolbert was doing and he won heat 12 with Branford yet again taking a crucial point against Lunna.

Heat 13 now and we had Craig on gate 4! He duly won it though Auty chased very hard, and with Sam in third we were now looking good with a 42-36 lead

Williamson had only taken two rides so he had to be in heat 14, and we held a 5-1 till Wilkinson fell on the pits bend and took an age to move. In the rerun Sedgmen led and Branford bided his time before eventually passing Williamson.

So we had won, and needed to avoid a 1-5 to ensure that we took the fourth point. And we had Cook on gate 4!

However for once Cook went too wide and lost a lot of ground. Wolbert led the way but was passed brilliantly by Davies, while Cook eventually reeled in Pijper for a shared race.

STATISTICAL NOTE: Just to highlight the importance of the reserves today, Rob Branford met Nike Lunna 5 times and finished ahead 3-2. Max Clegg, who had much the harder races of our two reserves, finished 1-1 with the Finn.

Full Result Details