Comfortable win over Scunthorpe

REPORT Saturday 3rd August 2019, 1:18am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs beat Scunthorpe 53-37 tonight and their new-look side settled down pretty well against a Scunthorpe team which competed much better than in the early-season cup tie.

Four of the Monarchs' top five were paid for double figures, with Sam Masters commanding throughout, and new boy James Sarjeant made a steady debut scoring in every ride and finishing on paid 6.

Sam Masters scored a paid maximum and has only dropped a single point in his first three matches back for Monarchs. He said "The track was a little bit wet at first but it didn't ride too bad and I felt confident."

Referring to some of his new team mates he said "I think James Sarjeant is a very good signing. I guested for Glasgow a couple of weeks ago and he didn't jump the start that night, so I said to him to make it the same tonight! He did that and I think he will become a really good speedway rider.

"If Connor Coles had won heat 2 rather than falling on the last bend his night would have been a different story for him. He let his head get down a little bit. As for Willie Lawson, he's a good rider but he just needs to get his bikes a little bit better."

The track had been heavily watered and some riders coped better than others in the early stages. It certainly seemed to suit visitors Danny Ayres, Ben Barker and Simon Lambert who were all impressive and hard to subdue. However Scorpions' no. 1 Jake Allen had a disastrous meeting scoring just a single point, possibly affected by bike trouble.

Amongst the early highlights, heat 2 was certainly eventful. Connor Coles rode an excellent first corner to get between the Scunthorpe pair and led all the way, joined at the front by William Lawson who stormed past the visitors down the back straight. It looked a certain 5-1 but on the last corner Coles came down, and couldn't remount quickly enough to get a point.

Lawson won that heat but the reserves didn't score again, seeming to be affected more than most by the conditions. Lawson should have had a point in heat 4 but got into difficulties with Lambert running into him, earning the home man an exclusion.

By contrast Ricky Wells carried on where he left off last week, sailing to the front and riding smoothly. He led heat 5 while there was a great battle between Pickering and Ayres. Pickering seemed to have secured a paid win only for Ayres to come back to regain the second spot.

Heeps had been passed early in heat 4 by Barker, but gained his revenge when Barker came in to heat 7 as a tac sub. Heeps led all the way to maintain Monarchs' 8-point lead at that stage.

However heat 8 didn't go so well. James Sarjeant brilliantly rounded Ayres on the first corner to lead but then made the mistake of switching to the inside, to find that both Ayres and Simon Lambert took him on the outside!

That brought us back to just a 4-point advantage and improvement was needed, duly supplied by Wells-Pickering (a powerhouse pairing) and Masters-Sarjeant over the next two heats. A gap of 12 looked pretty safe.

Heeps made a tremendous effort in heat 11 to catch race leader Ayres and didn't miss out by much after an exciting chase. That was the last encouragement we gave Scunthorpe with race winners Pickering, Heeps, Wells and Masters closing the show. A particularly impressive first corner by Masters round the dirt in heat 15 foiled another race winning attempt by Ayres.

It was Ed the Monarch's birthday and the youngsters competing in his annual race chose this week's Monarch of the Match – Sam Masters!

Full Result Details