Heat 11 under way Image Credit: Mick Hinves

Tough night in Sussex

REPORT Saturday 6th July 2019, 10:03pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs went down 54-36 tonight at Eastbourne, one of the toughest places in the UK to score well at.

Monarchs' team manager John Campbell said "It was dry and very, very dusty in front of a big crowd. Their reserves passed ours in heat 2 but apart from that, there wasn't a lot of overtaking.

"The scoreline was not unexpected. Ricky was our most competitive rider, though he was still sore from his crash at Armadale last week. He didn't feel able to take a tac sub ride in heat 6 but he did manage to take one in heat 9.

"Connor Coles was fine, William Lawson made a start in heat 12 and led that race for a time, which shows what he is capable of if he could ever make a start. But he rarely does."

We were 8 points down at heat 8, and a couple of 1-5 reverses in the second half of the match helped widen the gap to 18 by the end of the night.

Ricky Wells and Joel Andersson were our race winners, Joel's coming in heat 14 after a stramash with Alfie Bowtell who had brought him off in the first running of the heat. Ricky won heat 5 and heat 15 to make him comfortably our top scorer. Our race advantages were heats 5 and 14 but too many went the other way.