Erik flying at the Showground Image Credit: Jack Cupido

Good away point for the team

REPORT Sunday 13th May 2018, 8:10pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs grabbed a point at Peterborough today thanks to a great second place from the back in the final heat by Erik Riss. The final score was 48-42 in Panthers’ favour with the Monarchs’ points being spread throughout the team.

Monarchs had been six points in front after six races but as team manager John Campbell said “All of our team were competitive and tried very hard but we just weren’t quite good enough. We needed more race winners and even Ricky and Erik only managed three wins between them.

“Everyone scored points though and that was encouraging. Erik did a fantastic job in that last race. We were 4 down and very surprised that Peterborough chose gates 2 and 4 in the last heat because gate 1 had been dominant. Palm Toft moved and Erik made the start, but the referee pulled it back. In the restart Ricky didn’t leave the tapes and the Panthers gated, so well done to Erik for overhauling Scott Nicholls for the point. Nicholls had been very impressive.

“We needed a few more points from Mark Riss, he didn’t have a great day but Max, Joel and Josh can be happy with their performances, and Matt started well.”

Ricky Wells opening the match with a race win, and we followed up with a 5-1 in heat 2 after Bacon had touched the tapes. We kept Lunna at the back in heat 3 and took another 4-2 in heat 4, before sharing heat 5. The score then was 15-21 and in came Palm Toft as a tac sub, which brought them a 5-1.

Our next race winner was Ricky in heat 11 and a 4-2 there, with Ostergaard at the rear, levelled up the scores. Heat 12 was a disappointment though as Mark lost a 5-1 for the second time in the match. Two shared heats left us looking for a 5-1 to draw in the final race.

John Campbell added “Results elsewhere today proved that Friday’s shock result at Peterborough was not because they are a bad team, but because Workington are currently a great team!”