Two point defeat in the Scottish derby

REPORT Saturday 29th June 2019, 1:28am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It was certainly a dramatic night at Armadale tonight, with Glasgow winning 45-43 and maintaining their unbeaten record in the league. They had the unbeatable Cook, and the others did what they had to do and avoided throwing silly points away.

But the Staggs Bar Monarchs know that they could and should have won, with the phrase "architects of their own downfall" being particularly relevant. The night had begun with guest Kyle Howarth withdrawing from the meeting for what was announced to be "a family problem" and rider replacement was a poor substitute (4 points) for the missing Josh Pickering.

Alex Harkess said "It's desperately disappointing because we know we should have had a better result. Some of the points we threw away were very poor and luck seemed to be right against us as well."

In scoring the full 15, Craig Cook didn't even need to make the start, he was so far ahead of every other rider. He came from the back in heat 1 to pass Victor Palovaara, and even though the Monarchs pair of Wells and Heeps made the gate in the final race Cook sliced between them with ease to make victory certain for his team.

The other rider who deserves great praise from the Tigers is no. 6 Kyle Bickley who showed great tenacity as well as decent gating to rack up 10+1. That simply left riders like Vissing, Jensen and Starke to return reasonable scores in order to ensure victory.

Edinburgh's main scorer was Cameron Heeps who won his first three rides before suffering three defeats by Cook. It was the Aussie's highest score at Armadale.

Monarchs' only other race winner was Victor Palovaara who had a mixed night but finished with two wins. Ricky Wells didn't win a heat but he did suffer in a heat 6 crash with Paul Starke when the riders locked together out of the start and ploughed into the fence.

Wells said "My problem was that I couldn't get off the bike and I hit the fence hard. My wrist and arm were very sore which meant I couldn't hold on well, and I had to stick on the inside line."

Joel Andersson scored 9+1 but missed out in possibly the two most important heats of the night, heats 12 and 14. If ever Monarchs needed victories these were the heats, but Joel was too easily brushed aside. He lost a 5-1 to Jensen and Bickley in heat 12, and was beaten by Vissing in heat 14

There were not nearly enough points from the home reserves. Nobody could possibly blame Connor Coles who tried tremendously hard and had one outstanding ride in heat 4 when he held third ahead of Starke, and then went round Bickley to set up a 5-1 with Heeps. He then stopped entering the last lap – and admitted afterwards that he had miscounted the laps! That will be a lesson learnt.

He also impressed in heat 8 in which he tried everything to pass Sarjeant and Bickley but could not quite get there.

His fellow reserve William Lawson, though, just isn't delivering what he ought to be capable of. He scored 2 and should have had a gift in heat 5 when Sarjeant failed to finish. However he was excluded following the race when it was realised he had pulled his second bike from his van without it undergoing the necessary examinations – a ridiculous error.

It would certainly have been an entertaining night for a neutral fan. Glasgow went three up after that Lawson lost point, but Edinburgh took a 5-0 from heat 9 (they were on a 5-1 but Starke and Bailey both fell). That was followed by a Palovaara – Wells 5-1 from heat 10 and suddenly Monarchs were six up!

However Edinburgh didn't manage a race winner over the final 5 heats, with heats 12 and 14 really being the key races. Glasgow did what they had to do and there's no arguing with that.

Full Result Details