Diamonds off to a flier, but the Monarchs rule
NEWCASTLE BEATEN WITH KEY MEN MISSING
AFTER a hugely promising start, Newcastle Diamonds finished well beaten by SGB Championship league leaders Edinburgh Monarchs last night.
The Diamonds recorded three 5-1 wins from the first five races, but ended up going down 53-39.
In addition to being without No 1 Robert Lambert, the Diamonds were dealt a pre-meeting blow when Steve Worrall was told he had to race for his SGB Premiership club Belle Vue, instead of Newcastle, on the instruction of Speedway Control Bureau manager Neil Vatcher.
Glasgow star Ben Barker came in at the 11th hour to replace Worrall and join his Tigers’ team-mate Aaron Summers, who was standing in for Lambert.
Summers and Ashley Morris got the Diamonds away to a terrific start with a 5-1 in the opening race, but reserves Ben Hopwood and Connor Coles were immediately on the receiving end of the same result in the next.
Skipper Ludvig Lindgren and Lewis Rose then hit the front and held off the Monarchs duo in the third race, and when Summers and Morris repeated their first-race success, Newcastle led 18-12.
But it was too good to last and the Diamonds failed to take any further race advantages over the remaining 10 races as the Monarchs’ strong fightback included four 5-1 maximum wins. The top five men in each side scored 38 points between them, but the major difference was in the scoring of the respective reserve pairings.
Max Clegg and Mitchell Davey notched 15 between them whereas Newcastle’s Hopwood and Coles had only the single point gleaned from the second race to show for their efforts. That’s where the match was won and lost.