Speedway: Tigers on track for success as meek Monarchs stutter

Published on Friday 5 August 2011 11:49

GLASGOW TIGERS took a giant step towards clinching the Premier League championship crown with a second win over Edinburgh Monarchs in the space of a week at Armadale last night. The Tigers grabbed three points as they powered to a 48-42 triumph which left big question marks hanging over some of the Capital squad.

In a carbon copy of their defeat at Ashfield last Sunday, two of Monarchs top five, Craig Cook and Kalle Katajisto, failed to live up to expectations again, and you simply cannot expect to win matches with just three riders and four passengers.

Predictably, Monarchs were crushed at reserve with Tigers duo Nick Morris and Theo Pijper outscoring their rival pairing Tim Webster and Kyle Howarth by a mammoth 23 points. The Monarchs duo spent most of the evening on their backsides after spills aplenty in the difficult track conditions, and Howarth, who took a nasty tumble in heat eight, withdrew from the meeting with concussion.

And while some will argue that the Monarchs reserves perhaps lack experience, Morris is only 17, yet is currently scoring like a seasoned professional. What a trump card he turned out to be for the Tigers as he amassed 16 points from seven starts.

The meeting was by no means a classic on a track some were suggesting had been prepared specifically to throw Tigers off their stride, but the heavy surface adversely affected some of the home squad, and if it was a ploy, it rebounded spectacularly on the Monarchs management.

Skipper Matthew Wethers called conditions "difficult" and team-mate Andrew Tully, who looked the only one at ease on the surface, said: "The track was just a bit wet with some extra dirt put down, and if you hit the dirt it launched you forward. It was the same for everybody which doesn't mean it was good."

Yet Tully got his head down and was unbeaten after four outings before finishing third in heat 15.

Cook's display mystified many as he was in peachy form for his Elite League side Belle Vue Aces on Monday. He said after scoring just six points: "I didn't have an engine to get me round and I struggled all evening, I had my set-up dialled in but when I got to Armadale I didn't expect the track to be so grippy.

I had no engine to get me through the dirt, I tried, but the track was too much for my bikes. The track did turn slicker towards the end and I made a few adjustments to my bikes, but I simply didn't have the speed."

Cook continued: "But fair play to Glasgow, they were the better team and deserved to win and we must accept that and move on."

The track also caught out Tigers No.?1 Joe Screen, who lost control a couple of times coming out of the fourth bend which cost his side a few points, but team manager Stewart Dickson was nonetheless very satisfied to put Monarchs to the sword for a second time.

He said: "Edinburgh had two riders off form and after five or six races, I thought we had a chance of winning. I would have been happy to take just one point, to get three was fantastic and the chasing pack now have more work to do. I didn't put any pressure on my team before the meeting and told them if we didn't get anything that was okay providing we keep winning at Ashfield, and that message seemed to work.

"When we go to Armadale Monarchs always seem to dig in and get the better of us, but this was a good effort, and while we perhaps enjoyed a slice of good fortune, we'll take that any time.".

Tully and Kevin Wolbert were Monarchs joint top scorers with 12 points each, but Wolbert's last place in heat 13 was a killer as the Tigers scooped a 4-2 advantage and they scented the winning post after that.

Monarchs: Tully 12, Wolbert 12, Wethers 7, Cook 6, Katajisto 4, Howarth 1, Webster 0.

Glasgow: Morris 16, Summers 11, Pijper 8, Screen 7, Sweetman 5, Rajkowski 1.