Hard Fought Win in the First League Match

REPORT Saturday 23rd April 2016, 1:29am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We might not have quite as strong a side at the moment as we’ve had in recent seasons, but one thing that hasn’t changed is the fighting spirit which we displayed in abundance, coming back from a six-point deficit at heat 5 to win 49-41 and deny Workington a point.

Alex Harkess said “We were making too many mistakes early on and just giving away points, but thankfully we sorted it out over the last few heats. In the end I was happy enough.”

The result will certainly disappoint the Comets who were gating so well in the early stages and seemed to be in command of the match. They opened with two 4-2s and that was only because Sam Masters and Max Clegg managed to snatch late second places on the final lap after poor starts.

Ryan Fisher’s win in heat 4 plus a gift for Dan Bewley gained us our first advantage, but we promptly lost a 5-1 when the star Comets’ pair of Wells and Jensen took a 5-1 over Kevin Wolbert.

With the score at 12-18 it wasn’t looking great, but we have a star pair of our own in Masters and Riss who sped away from Claus Vissing to cut the gap. We might have taken the lead in heat 7 with Fisher and Clegg on a 5-1 but Kenneth Hansen overhauled Max. However the scores were levelled.

Max also came into heat 8 with a view to taking a point off their no. 7 Williamson (the Comets’ stronger reserve) but he missed out on that after another slow start. Riss was flying by now though and easily took the race win over Jensen.

Vissing won heat 9 but Wolbert and Etheridge shared it (Jye beating an opponent for the first time with a steady ride). Then we went ahead through (inevitably) Masters and Riss with a 5-1 over Hansen. We need these guys to take the advantages!

We also need Fisher and Wolbert to win heats, and they obliged in the next two races, Ryan doing especially well to head Wells and Jensen. Max Clegg beat Williamson in heat 12 to extend our advantage to 6.

Sam got away in heat 13 but he needed backup, and got it when Fisher rode a really forceful first corner to push into second. Wells managed to catch him but the 4-2 gave us a 43-35 lead, and Max Clegg came up with his best ride of the night to win and secure victory.

The excellent Wells then won the final heat, but it wasn’t enough for a match point.

Full Result Details