What the Fork Monarchs bounced back back from a disappointing home defeat to arch rivals Glasgow Tigers to turn the tables at Glasgow.

Tigers were previously unbeaten at home and were buoyed by victory at Armadale but on a baking hot day the Blue and Gold won 46-44.

Alex Harkess, Monarchs’ team manager, said that in theory his men have probably been better away from home.

“I can’t give you an answer to why. I felt coming through we might win if our heat leaders did what they can do.

“We needed the rest to pick up the odd points and (on Sunday) we had Kye scoring points and that was the big difference.”

Heat leader Sam Masters, Josh Pickering and Richie Worrall were in top form winning nine races between them and Kye Thomson had his best away match of the season.

Masters set the scene with a tapes to flag victory in heat 1 but with partner Willie Lawson at the back nothing was gained.

Heat 2 saw the home men take the lead as Justin Sedgmen and Connor Bailey took a 4-2 over Lawson.

The lead was extended in Heat 6 as home No 1 Craig Cook beat Worrall while Broc Nicol pipped Lawson on the line to give Tigers a four-point advantage.

This was wiped out in the next race as Pickering and Thomson took a heat maximum over home guest Jye Etheridge and Sedgmen. Thomson did all the hard work, blasting round Etheridge after Pickering had made the gate.

A run of seven shared heats followed with some tremendous tussles among them, not least Heat 13 where two races in one saw Cook get the better of Masters while Worrall made sure Etheridge could inflict no damage.

This meant the teams were level going into the last race. Masters and Pickering were chosen and with the former blasting from the start and the latter slotting into third off the second bend it was perhaps the least eventful heat of the day.

Four flawless laps by the Monarchs pair followed to send all of a Blue and Gold persuasion into delirium.

Glasgow Tigers 44: Cook 12+1, Nicol 5, Jensen 7+2, Wells 6+2, Etheridge 3, Sedgemen 7, Bailey 4+3

Edinburgh Monarchs 46: Masters 14, Thomson 9+1, Pickering 11+1, Worrall 9+1, Lawlor 1, Lawson 2

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