Campbell's fears realised as Bears maul Monarchs

EDINBURGH MONARCHS promoter John Campbell was not optimistic about his side's chances of victory at Redcar Bears last night, and so it proved as the speedway outfit crashed to a 51-41 Premier League defeat which leaves them in mid-division in the championship table with just one away success at Newport Wasps to their credit so far this season.

Monarchs were dealt a blow 24 hours before the clash when No.?1 Kevin Wolbert reported an injury while racing in Germany and Newport's Leigh Lanham was quickly recruited as a guest replacement. Wolbert also misses tonight's fixture against Sheffield Tigers at Armadale where Glasgow's James Grieves will deputise.

Lanham was Monarchs' top scorer with eleven points which included three race wins. But Monarchs, despite opening up with a 5-1 from Lanham and skipper Matthew Wethers in the first heat, were never really at the races after that as the Bears put the squeeze on.

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However, Finnish ace Kalle Katajisto, who has been under the spotlight lately, perked up by scoring nine points. Katajistio defeated Jason Lyons and Peter Juul in one race and also grabbed four points in a tactical outing in heat 14 finishing second behind Bears ace Gary Havelock.

Wethers also took a double pointer ride in heat eight, taking the chequered flag convincingly. But Andrew Tully and Craig Cook once again found the going hard and eight points between them was not startlingly good.

Monarchs director Mike Hunter observed: "The way Andrew and Craig rode was very much the way they rode at Glasgow Tigers last Sunday. There was scope for going quick on the outside, but there was too much white line stuff from them both.

Hunter went on: "If you ride inside on a track when the outside is faster, it doesn't matter what you do, you are not going to win races. Since he was very good at Scunthorpe the faster tracks seem to be catching Craig out and he needs to pick it up a bit."

Ashley Morris replaced the injured Kyle Howarth at reserve again, but the youngster, who also turns out against Sheffield, failed to score and this may well have jeopardised a possible full time return to Armadale after he was axed a few weeks ago.

Hunter revealed: "We were considering pairing Ashley up with Kyle when he comes back but he would need to pick his form up to what it was last season, and sadly there is no sign of that yet, We'll see what he does tonight but we are certainly giving Ashley plenty of chances to impress."

Howarth, who has been out for a month with a shoulder problem, will return to action for his National League side Belle Vue Colts on Monday and if he comes through unscathed is expected to be in the Monarchs team for their Spring Trophy visit to Ashfield on June 27. Monarchs' other reserve Lee Dicken collected four points and Hunter added: "If Lee could do that home and away and we had another strong reserve, we'd be okay at the tail-end."

Dicken said: "I was just happy to score but I've set my sights higher than getting just four points. I had been making good gates lately but not good first corners, but it was the exact opposite this time. I'm also working on a new engine because in my last race the one I was using ran out of power."

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He added: "It's not easy to win at Redcar even though they have been struggling themselves at home. In truth we didn't really gate that well and that proved something of a factor. But hopefully we'll bounce back against Sheffield."

Redcar: Kus 13, Summers 11, Havelock 10, Lyons 9, Juul 8, Branford 3, Tomicek 0.

Monarchs: Lanham 11, Katajisto 9, Wethers 9, Tully 4, Cook 4, Dicken 4, Morris 0.

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