Monarchs lose on road, win at home
Home triumph follows up away collapse
It was a mixed bag for the Parsons Peebles Monarchs as they scored a win and a defeat along with a postponement in a busy week for the club.
A mid-match collapse proved costly as they slumped to a 5039 defeat away at Ipswich on Thursday evening before sealing a comfortable 56-34 home triumph against the Redcar Bears the following day.
Unfortunately, the bad weather put paid to their scheduled Sunday trip south to face the Newcastle Diamonds with that fixture called off due to heavy rain.
A fast start on away shale against the Witches saw the visitors lead 22-19 after seven heats but three consecutive 5-1 heat advantages for Ipswich turned the meeting completely on its head as the home side boasted a nine-point advantage heading into the final five heats.
They weren’t able to close the gap with a series of 3-3 ties meaning the Armadale-based side would return north without a share of the spoils.
Sam Masters top-scored with 11 points while Erik Riss was the only Monarchs rider to grab two heat victories as he tallied nine points.
A frustrated Mitchell Davey commented: “The boys are disappointed that we didn’t leave with at least a point. In the early part of the meeting we were gating really well but Ipswich just seemed to find a bit extra out of the gate.
“The three 5-1s in the middle of the meeting killed us and it gave them the momentum to go and win.”
Masters and Riss led the charge the following day as they combined for 27 points to help guide the Monarchs to an easy win at Armadale Stadium against Redcar Bears to cement their place at the top of the Championship table.
The German ace admitted he struggled to get a grip on his home track despite the impressive return.
He said: “The track was quite tough. In the beginning it was quite deep and I struggled. I had a crash in my second when I lost my steel shoe. Then I changed something on the bike and it was good.”
The Monarchs moved smoothly ahead with the first four race wins to take a 16-8 advantage and never looked to be in any danger of slipping up after their decent start.
Jonas Andersen would take heat five for the Bears but his two heat wins proved to be all the visitors could muster.
That was in stark contrast to the Monarchs with all of their riders, bar Mark Riss, sealing a heat victory in yet another impressive team performance at home.