A good start in heat one Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

Monarchs Win But Tigers Qualify

REPORT Saturday 27th August 2016, 0:58am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs won a hotly-contested Scottish derby 48-41 tonight, but went out of the Knockout Cup on a fairly comprehensive 78-95 aggregate.

Alex Harkess said “I was disappointed with our performance, too many riders throwing in bad rides and not performing as they should be capable of. We were well beaten overall.”

The damage was certainly done in the first leg but we went into tonight’s tie feeling we had just an inkling of a chance, if we could get off to a good start. Equally Glasgow must have been confident with a 24 point advantage.

The match drew our biggest crowd of the season to see who would gain the upper hand. The home riders gated in heat 1 but Mark Riss spun through 360° and the chance was lost. In heat 2, after the Tigers had gated better, Max Clegg and Nike Lunna fell on the third corner, and were both ruled out of the rerun. Dan Bewley won the heat by passing Danny Ayres but that felt like another chance lost.

As the match went on, shared heats were the order of the day, and that wasn’t enough for us. In the end 11 heats finished 3-3, to add to the heat 2 3-2 plus three 4-2s we managed to eke out.

While Glasgow rode well, they didn’t actually manage a heat advantage, but we were at no stage able to put them under pressure by building an advantage.

Our star man of course was Sam Masters, working hard to take four wins. He wasn’t necessarily gating ahead but some powerful first corners brought him victory in every ride other than a torrid heat 13.

In this one Tigers were on a 5-1 which would have given them the lead in the match, but Kevin Wolbert pulled off an excellent pass on Aaron Summers, with Sam Masters following suit later. The three had a good battle for the minor places behind leader Lawson, until Summers fell going into the final lap.

A 4-2 in heat 14 then ensured we won on the night, but Glasgow had long since qualified (as early as heat 11 when they were just 3 behind).

Other than Sam, Kevin Wolbert rode well and we had decent enough points from reserve, though neither Dan Bewley nor Max Clegg gated consistently. Ryan Fisher rode with his broken foot but was more inclined to blame his engine than the injury for a modest score.

For Glasgow Richie Worrall gave a powerful performance throughout with main support from Richard Lawson and Rene Bach, plus important points from Nike Lunna.

Glasgow will meet Somerset in the semi-final. It will be the first time we haven’t been KO Cup Finalists since 2013.