Bettered At Berwick

REPORT Saturday 11th June 2016, 11:43pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

A fairly tepid performance saw the Border Roofing Monarchs go down 50-40 in what was a deserved victory for the Berwick Bandits at Shielfield Park tonight.

The Monarchs had travelled hoping to repeat their victory in the League Cup encounter back in April but in all honesty despite a bright start it never really felt on the cards. As is normally the case at Berwick gating was the key but this was compounded this evening by the fact that gate 1 was an absolute graveyard in which you had almost pretty much no chance of getting to the first bend in front. The riders from gate 1 totalled zero race wins and only 16 points from the 15 heats came from riders lining up from the inside.

As we often do we started brightly a comfortable heat 1 5-1 from Sam and Erik over Kevin Doolan and Theo Pijper was a promising start. However this was very quickly reversed in heat 2 when man of the match for Berwick Simon Lambert and Liam Carr rocketed form the tapes and although Dan nipped away on the inside of Liam Carr there was no way through. Unfortunately this was to be a theme of the night and match was won and lost at reserve with Berwick totalling 15 paid 19 to our 3, only 1 of these coming at the expense of an opponent.

The Bandits took the lead for the first time in heat 3 when Kevin Doolan and Matty Wethers took a 4-2 over our German pairing. Mark Riss actually gated in 3rd but on his first ever time ever seeing the track was a little untidy and Matty waited his time before making his move on bend 4 of the 2nd lap. We perhaps got a little fortunate to get this straight back in the next heat when Berwick’s flying Dane Thomas Jorgensen was excluded. Jorgensen was adjudged to have jumped the start in the first running even though Ryan seemed to have the drop on him. The second running the Dane made a blatant jump and was excluded for delaying the start. The Fish duly took care of Liam Carr in the re-run again with Dan nipping at his heels.

Our top pairing put us back in the lead with another 4-2 in heat 5 but this was quickly answered by Berwick in heat 6 with Theo getting the drop on Ryan from the start. The signs were ominous at this point as we had the dreaded gate 1 in each of the next 4 races and low and behold a mid match collapse duly ensued. Wolbert was clamped down and left stranded as Jorgensen and Lambert raced to a 5-1 in heat 7. Pijper again was lightning from the start to best Erik in heat 8 with Dan at the back. Doolan repeated this trick on Ryan in heat 9 with Max nowhere so in the space of 3 heats we had gone from being equal to being 8 behind.

Heat 10 was race of the night (to be fair there wasn’t much competition) Simon Lambert hit the front and appeared set to remain unbeaten at this point. Kevin had other ideas though as he reeled him in lap by lap finally executing a majestic pass going round the Peterborough man on bend 2 of lap 4 to get us a split of the heat. One small negative to this though was it meant we could not use a tactical ride in the next heat. Our opening pairing again delivered a 4-2 in this one to pull the deficit back to 6 with 4 races to go. Kevin was electric from gate 4 and waltzed to a heat 12 victory by around the length of a straight. Unfortunately though again no back up could be found so a 3-3 was all we could muster.

This meant we went into heat 13 still with a 6 point deficit and realistically requiring a 5-1 if we were to have any hope of taking anything from the match. This did not look likely with the previously unbeaten Sam buried on gate 1. Sam appeared to make the start and hit the first bend in the lead only for the referee Jim McGregor to pull it back and issue Sam with a warning for jumping the start. It was hard to tell from the vantage point on the back straight but Sam certainly seemed to disagree. In the re-run Sam appeared to gate level with the rest but was just not in front enough to push out the impressive Jorgensen who sped off into the distance. The ensuing melee on the first bend had left Ryan at the back but he promptly cut under Theo coming out of bend 4 on the 1st lap and the spoils were shared again.

Heat 14 always looked a weak one for the Monarchs and so it was to be as the final nail was put in the coffin. Mark Riss demolished the tapes and was replaced by the totally ineffective Max Clegg the ensuing Bandits 5-1 could not have been much easier although again credit has to go to Dan for not giving up the less said about his reserve partner the better.

So into heat 15 we went needing a 5-1 to claim a match point. By virtue of Sam winning the toss at the start of the meeting and selecting the gates for heats 1-14 the Bandits had the choice of gates and off course took 2 and 4. The Monarchs top pairing of Sam and Kevin were selected and in perhaps an incorrect choice given how close he had been to pulling it off from gate 1 in heat 13 Sam was selected for gate 3 and Kevin in 1. Sam promptly made the gate and took care of the challenge of Jorgensen on the first bend but Kevin could make zero impact and a 3-3 left a final score of 50-40 and a disappointing 10 point defeat meaning we came home empty handed.

The star man for Berwick was undoubtedly guest reserve Simon Lambert. The in-form Peterborough man racing to 10+3 from his 5 rides. Whether Romano Hummel would have been effective we can only guess. To be fair to the Bandits it could be argued that R/R at number 1 was ineffective being as it only mustered 4 points from the 4 rides. He was ably backed up by Thomas Jorgensen and Kevin Doolan both of who made it to double figures. Theo will be happy with 2 race wins and paid 6 will be welcome from number 7 for Liam Carr as well. Matty was a little sluggish from the starts but still chipped in with 5 including a heat 14 heat win.

For the Monarchs it is hard to pick fault with any of the top 4. Sam was majestic with only gate 1 in heat 13 stopping him from racing to a maximum. Erik was solid with a paid 7 score and he was involved in 3 heat advantages for the Monarchs. It is unfortunate that the current makeup of the Monarchs team means that this score which is perfectly acceptable for a number 2 away from home is not enough for us to gain points. Kevin had 2 heat wins on his way to 9 points and Ryan had 8+1 from his 4 rides. So all in all 37 points from our top 4 which should be enough to ensure we gain at least a point in any match. Unfortunately the bottom 3 could only muster 3 points between them 2 of these being the consolation points on the end of a 5-1 and the other after Jorgensen was excluded. Excuses can be made for Mark Riss in his second match in the country and Dan Bewley who while not able to get the jump on the Bandits at least kept them honest plugging away on the inside line. Max had one of his all too common absolute howlers away from Armadale and the worry for him and the Monarchs must be his lack of progression on the bigger away tracks. He was never in position to score tonight and was last out of the gate and into the first turn in all his rides and in 2 of these he coasted round at the back failing to finish the race. It sometimes appears like he does not have the belief that he is capable of doing anything on these kinds of tracks.

So we move onto Scunthorpe tomorrow hoping for a more favourable result and the away points required to move into a playoff challenging position. We can currently say we are in a false league spot due to having ridden less matches but if we do not start turning these matches into points we will leave ourselves with a lot to do to defend our title for what would be a remarkable third year in a row.

Full Result Details