Edinburgh Monarchs v Glasgow Tigers

REPORT Saturday 17th October 2015, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The all-Scottish Premier Championship Final was a great occasion in terms of attendances but in the end it was a very comfortable win for Edinburgh who thus retained their title.

Glasgow of course were extremely unlucky to have lost their in-form captain Aaron Summers the night before, though pre-match their ploy of bringing in Theo Pijper for Kauko Nieminen and employing rider replacement for Summers seemed as good a way as any to cover.

On the night, it just didn’t work because Pijper found it hard to overcome his recent lengthy layoff, and more importantly not one of the Tigers’ riders was able to consistently match the top home men. The Border Roofing Monarchs in fact held the upper hand throughout the team, right down to the very lively Max Clegg at reserve.

Monarchs had Liam Carr in their side replacing Rob Branford, also injured the night before, and the young Berwick lad picked up a good point as well.

All the top home men were in good and determined mood, but the most influential man was Sam Masters who had set himself the task of atoning for a poor display at Ashfield. He did so in no uncertain terms.

There was a surprise for the Armadale fans in the opening race as Richard Lawson and Theo Pijper shot from the tapes. Craig Cook moved smoothly past both of them before the end of the first lap but Justin Sedgmen couldn’t make any headway and eventually dropped out. These two have returned so many opening 5-1s that this was a blow. Cook was just 0.2 outside the track record in spite of his slow start.

However the reserves’ heat then went better than expected with Clegg leading all the way, and Carr holding off James Sarjeant for a couple of laps.

Heat 3 brought the first break in the scoring as Kevin Wolbert forced himself to the front ahead of Nick Morris, and Erik Riss held off Theo Pijper. That took the gap down to 5.

Glasgow had gambled with a strong pair in the middle and a weaker one for heat 4, though obviously their intentions were undone with the loss of Summers. Masters and Clegg capitalized with 5 points and things were starting to look favourable for the home side, especially as Masters looked pretty fast and dominant.

Richard Lawson gave the visiting fans something to shout about by winning heat 5 comfortably, though Wolbert and Riss shared the heat. This turned out to be the only Tigers’ race winner.

Sedgmen and Cook then returned to their normal ways taking a maximum from heat 6, having to do it twice as Victor Palovaara took a heavy fall on the second bend at the first attempt.

Monarchs were now in the lead, and Stewart Dickson decided to test Masters’ form by giving Lawson his rider replacement ride alongside Morris in heat 7. The Tigers’ pair got to the first corner in front, but Masters was soon round Lawson. He then set out after Morris, riding up high on the bends, and with many people probably willing him to take it easy and settle for what he had, he followed a strong outside move with a dash through on the next bend for a great win.

Probably that was the moment when everyone realized there was only going to be one winner in this tie. Tigers’ luck was out again in heat 8 which they should have shared (especially after Clegg missed the two minutes and went off 15 metres on a Masters’ machine), only for Pijper’s bike to fail and dump him on the track.

The lineups for the next two heats suggested that Monarchs would forge ahead, but they failed to do so, because Riss fell on the second turn in heat 9 and remarkably Cook spun off when comfortably in front of heat 10! Wolbert and Sedgmen respectively won the heats but there were still just 5 points in it on aggregate, in Edinburgh’s favour.

Masters kept his winning run going ahead of Lawson in heat 11 and Liam Carr joined in the fun with a third, which he had secured before Pijper dropped out at the back. Another 4-2 followed in heat 12 with Wolbert easily beating Morris, and Clegg ahead of Sarjeant, who fell and slowly cleared the track.

As Cook and Masters emerged for heat 13, needing 5 points from the remaining three heats, everyone must have felt the end was nigh. Inevitably the home big guns emerged from the second corner in front, and this time there were no mistakes as they raced home by a wide margin. Monarchs were champions and already there were celebrations.

Eventually the track was cleared, allowing Erik Riss to take a heat 14 win as he has done so often this season. Finishing the job in style, Craig Cook and Kevin Wolbert were well clear for another 5 in the last race and the demolition was complete.

Full Result Details