Hard Fought Victory

REPORT Saturday 11th June 2016, 1:36am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs beat Ipswich 52-39 tonight but would acknowledge that they had to work hard right to the end of the night to subdue the tenacious visitors.

Monarchs led from heat one in which Danny King fell, but were pulled back to just a 2-point lead at heat 5 and even going into the final race, there was still a chance for Ipswich to take a point.

The old firm of Sam Masters and Kevin Wolbert led the way, Erik Riss had three productive rides, and Ryan Fisher battled on what looked a pretty slow engine.

Max Clegg and Dan Bewley had probably their best matches of the year, and new boy Mark Riss impressed everyone with a steady debut in spite of scoring only a single point. With better gating he looks to be well capable of contributing plenty.

It was a longer meeting than usual with a fair bit of track grading going on, and some first bend tumbles as the riders fought to gain the upper hand.

Monarchs in fact had the edge at the gate, but when it came to overtaking you have to hand it to the Witches, most of it was achieved by their riders.

Nico Covatti has to be one of the most spectacular and exciting visitors, using the outside line especially on the third and fourth bends to great advantage. King obviously was classy, and both Barker and Risager had good moments.

Sam Masters gained the upper hand early in each of his races, and turned in some useful team riding with both Erik Riss and Kevin Wolbert (heat 15) as well. Kevin took two seconds and then rode unbeaten in his last three heats.

Max Clegg is always a key man and his form was much improved as he romped away with heats 2 and 14, and he also led heat 7 before Covatti passed him and Max came a cropper. He was much more competitive at the first turn which is very encouraging.

Dan Bewley scored paid 6 which included a 5-0 in heat 8 after he had a bit of shoulder bumping with James Sarjeant. Dan got the benefit of the doubt as James came off.

So we move on to the away matches at Berwick and Scunthorpe hoping for some success.

Full Result Details