Monarchs maul title favourites Newcastle to take nine-point title lead

Aug 12 2010 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE Scotwaste Monarchs sunk title rivals the Newcastle Diamonds by a titanic ten points (41-51) as they look to be roaring all the way to league title glory.

The West Lothian-based Monarchs visited and dumped the Newcastle Diamonds by the massive margin in what team boss John Campbell dubbed a ‘seven-point victory.’

He said: “We've taken a giant step towards the league title.

“In football parlance you would have described the match as a six-pointer but in speedway terms it's even more than that, it was a seven-pointer.

“We've gained four and they've lost three.”

Ryan Fisher played a support role in a great team display as Kevin Wolbert and Andrew Tully really took this match to the Diamonds in a dominant victory.

Diamonds finished two riders down, but that was their own doing – Larsen knocked Derek Sneddon in to the fence with a wild move, and by the time the Dane had fallen again and was pulled out of heat 13, the Monarchs were already 10 up with one Newcastle TR used.

It was a heavily watered track for the early races and it seemed to be slipping away as they lost 4-2s in the first two heats, and went six down at heat five.

Then came Larsen’s first blunder. Tully had gated and the home No.1 seemed to be trying to pull off some Gollob-style first bend move, only to thump poor Derek back-first through the pits gate.

It felt like a turning point at the time, and the Monarchs took advantage in style.

They then went four up at heat 8, and never lost another heat.

They had Bach in heat 9, and Larsen in heat 10, but they were swept away by (respectively) Tully and Wolbert, both returning astounding times below 62 seconds.

Mark Lemon had struggled in his first two and Monarchs took a 5-1 as he stopped in heat 11, then Wolbert nullified Jason King’s TR with an easy win in heat 12 in another fast time.

At this stage the Monarchs led 45-35 and when Larsen was pulled out of heat 13, it was clearly all over.

The next two heats were shared meaning the visitors only needed to avoid a 1-5 in the last heat to take all four points.

This race was also for the Julian Barnett Memorial Trophy and Kevin was so unlucky not to retain this.

He led by a distance at the end of lap two when Bach became the latest Diamond to spin and fall.

Kevin missed the gate in the rerun and in spite of a thrilling chase could not catch Lemon.

He was still happy enough at his dramatic improvement in form to pull celebration wheelies though.

The other improver was William Lawson who was still not at his best, but picked up important points.

Kalle had problems with his foot and missed his last ride, the only downside of an amazing evening.