Monarchs up to third as they do the double
Wins over Redcar and Plymouth for Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Border Roofing Monarchs climbed into third place in the Premier League table as they won both matches in Friday’s double-header.
The Monarchs clinched a 62-28 victory over the Redcar Bears and followed that up with a 39-30 win over Plymouth Devils at Armadale Stadium on Friday night.
The wins did come at a cost, though as Max Clegg and guest rider Rob Shuttleworth suffered injuries.
Team manager Alex Harkess commented: “It was a long night but we got the two wins we wanted. All of our riders did well and we had a great guest in Ludvig Lindgren, who scored a double maximum.”
Unfortunately after a brilliant display, Clegg was injured at the end of the first match, and a makeshift reserve pair had to be utilised against the Devils although that didn’t prove to be a problem.
Early signs are positive that the youngster will be back sooner rather than later.
Edinburgh’s guest number seven rider, Shuttleworth, also went down injured after just two heats.
With a weakened side, the first clash against Redcar was expected to be much trickier than it turned out to be as the hosts romped home to a 34-point win.
The visitors had just two race winners, in heats three and 14 with the latter coming from young Aussie Jye Etheridge, who had been released by the Monarchs earlier in the season.
Kevin Wolbert scored a 15 point maximum while Lindgren, guesting for captain Sam Masters, added a five-ride paid maximum. Clegg notched his best ever score with 14+1 before his evening was ended through injury.
Ryan Fisher and the Riss brothers, Erik and Mark, also added decent scores as the Monarchs clinched their largest victory of the season.
The Monarchs edged themselves 10 points in front after six heats in the second contest against Plymouth, before there was a major delay due to a problem with the usually reliable starting gate. Such has been the Monarchs’ luck this campaign that it had to run into difficulty during a double-header.
That meant only 11 heats were possible with the hosts taking a nine point win.
Lindgren and Fisher led the way in the opening heat to give the Monarchs a perfect 5-1 start and that lead was gradually extended further to 23-13 before the delay as the visiting Devils were unable to score a heat points victory.
A home 4- 2 for Wolbert and guest Kevin Whelan after the re-start saw the home side build their lead to a dozen points and they never looked in danger of letting that slip, even when Fisher was excluded in heat eight for clipping and bringing down Stefan Nielsen.
The Riss brother combined well in heat nine, even though Kyle Newman edged Mark on the line to second place.
Lindgren and Fisher took five in the next heat and, despite the use of a tactical ride which saw the Devils take a 7-2 advantage in heat 11, the match was abandoned as the action had gone on past 10 o’clock.
The Monarchs will be hoping to continue their terrific recent form when they host the Glasgow Tigers on Friday night in their final clash before the play-offs.