Thomson, Howarth and Pickering contest the lead Image Credit: Jack Cupido

A Thrilling match and a good win

REPORT Friday 11th June 2021, 11:21pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

As expected tonight's match against Leicester was a tremendously hard-fought affair, with the What the Fork Monarchs landing two 5-1 blows in heats 14 and 15 to run out 49-40 winners in the end.

This is a misleading scoreline as there was only a point between the teams for much of the night, but team manager Alex Harkess believed it was a very important result for the Monarchs.

"What pleased me most was their determination," he said. "They fought for everything. Josh Pickering and Sam Masters were top scorers but the man who changed the match was William Lawson.

"And that was after a last place in heat two! He made changes to his bike after that, rode a brilliant heat 4 to win, then started changing everything again!

"To beat Leicester by 9 on a night when Richie Worrall only scored 5 was very impressive and I was happy with the whole team. Kye Thomson did well again with four third places, all important ones."

The match had started with Masters beating Morris and a good point for Nathan Greaves in the opener. Monarchs went behind for the only time in the match when the Thompson twins took a 5-1 in heat 2, which was particularly disappointing for Lawson who had won this heat in both home fixtures so far.

Pickering beat Howarth in heat 3 with Thomson third to level the scores, then we had a curious heat 4. Richie Worrall fell in the first running on the pits turn, chasing Douglas who had made a lightning start, then a transformed Lawson moved ahead of Douglas in the rerun and looked like holding it until Douglas fell in the same place as Worrall!

His bike was partly under the air fence so he didn't get the chance to remount to claim the third place, so that's where the Monarchs' single point advantage first came from.

Nick Morris headed Pickering in heat 5, then Masters passed Douglas in heat 6 with Greaves taking another point to put Monarchs 3 ahead. Richie Worrall chased Kyle Howarth all the way in heat 7 but Kyle's win made it a 1-point gap again.

It did look as though Ty Proctor was going to win heat 8 though he was a little erratic, however the race was stopped when Joe Thompson came off and punctured the air fence. For the second time Willie Lawson took advantage of a rerun and raced ahead in the rerun, with Greaves also passing Proctor later in the race for a 5-1. This has been a problem heat for Monarchs in earlier matches.

After a shared heat 9 we suddenly had a race win for Josh Bates over Masters, even though Sam tried inside and out to peg him back. A Morris win over Worrall meant another 2-4 and we were back to that single point again.

Howarth looked very impressive in winning heat 12 but Lawson and Kye Thomson pegged back Joe Thompson, with Kye's third again being the reward for a good battling ride and a pass on the last lap.

And so to heat 13 with 4 powerhouse performers – and it was Nick Morris best away to head a hard pressing Masters all the way. It wasn't Richie's night but he kept battling to the end and took Ryan Douglas late in the race to maintain that advantage.

The opening lap of heat 14 was the most important of the night. Bates had won his previous race and seemed to make the start, but another clever second corner by Lawson eased him ahead, with Pickering also squeezing ahead of Bates by the third turn. Bates tried to retaliate but locked up and fell, leading to a Monarchs 5-1 in the rerun which virtually secured the win.

All that was left was a possible point for the Lions, but Masters got his best gate of the night, joined by the flying Pickering with a glorious outside sweep. Two late wins for Josh Pickering meant the winning gap was suddenly 9 points, a transformation after such a tight fixture.