Playoff Hopes Hanging By A Thread After Defeat

REPORT Wednesday 4th September 2019, 9:31pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs playoff hopes are now hanging by a thread after going down 55-35 to the Somerset Rebels at the Oak Tree Arena on Wednesday night.

The match had been billed as a must win beforehand and while not 100% certain it can be said that the victory for the home men will go a long way to them securing the final spot in the battle for the Championship.

The Monarchs made a nightmare start in heavy conditions with 5 retirements in the first 7 races and found themselves on the wrong end of an 18 point deficit at this point and there was no way back.

Monarchs team manager John Campbell taking up the story "There was a heavy heavy shower at 6:30 and that changed conditions drastically, I actually phoned Alex (Harkess Monarchs co-promoter) to let him hear how heavy it was and he could not believe it. I think if the match was in June it may have been called off but it is this time of year and you have to race through these things.

"The Rebels then won the toss and I think that was key, they choose 1 and 3 and that meant they had the inside gates in 4 of the first 6 races. I knew we were in trouble when Sam came in after heat 1 after he had retired saying how bad gate 4 was.

"We then had a run of engine failures and I think these can be attributed to that also as the amount of muck in the bikes it was causing problems, if you look at it once the gate positions started to change and the conditions dried out we all but matched Somerset.

"That is not to take anything away from the Rebels their tails were up and they knew how important this match was to them and they will be a tough challenge on Friday as well.

"These things happen and while I'm disappointed with the result we now know we need maximum points from the rest of our matches."

As Campbell mentioned after this disaster of a start the Monarchs did race on manfully in the second half of the meeting only being bested by 2 points over the remaining heats but this is scant consolation as another pointless night on their travels was recorded.

In all honesty the Monarchs did not have enough riders capable of scoring points and with the engine woes that befell Ellis Perks and Josh Pickering the back-up was not there for Sam Masters and Ricky Wells who can both be happy with their efforts. Masters took a couple of rides to get dialled in but after that raced to 3 victories in his 12 point haul while Wells recorded his best away performance since his drop out of the number 1 spot with 8 points.

Another who can be happy with his nights efforts was reserve William Lawson, Lawson was competitive throughout racing to 9 points the kind of scoring that many would have hoped would have led to a better result but with James Sarjeant failing to beat an opponent all evening and Conner Coles only besting this by beating Luke Harris in heat 2 and Josh Pickering only beating Anders Rowe in heat 10 there were too many passengers for a challenge on the night.

That is not to take away from the performance of the Rebels who adapted better to the conditions and were worthy winners. Their top 4 all contributing as expected while Anders Rowe continues to impress being unbeaten in his first 3 rides.

This now means that for the Monarchs to make the playoffs they will need to record 2 maximum 4 points victories over Berwick and Newcastle away from home this weekend while also remaining unbeaten at home and overturning an 87 points difference to the Rebels who will complete their league campaign at Armadale on Friday.

With the Monarchs away form so far this season a huge uptick in form will be required if any sniff of this is to happen.

Full Result Details