Speedway – late heat wins ‘puts gloss on scoreline’

What the Fork Monarchs squeezed home by 47-42 against Plymouth Gladiators, writes an Edinburgh Monarchs spokesman.

Gladiators had led from Heat 1 and unluckily lost Bjarne Pedersen in a Heat 13 crash. Monarchs took the lead in Heat 14 and finished with a 5-1 from Sam Masters and Josh Pickering to put a gloss on the scoreline.

Alex Harkess, Monarchs’ team manager, said: “Plymouth made a tremendous match of it. Some of our team were below par, we had some bad luck as well and I hope the riders involved in the heat 13 crash will be OK.

“I felt the referee got the decision to exclude Richie Worrall (pictured) wrong but I would not criticise him too much as it was a very tough call.”

Bike problems in the early stages for Masters and Worrall put Monarchs on the back foot. They were indebted to the pairing of Kye Thomson and Pickering, both excellent and, thankfully, Masters got his machine problems sorted in time to win his last two heats.

The tail-enders all gave their all but are finding it hard to come up with the points the team need, especially when one of the top four hits problems.

For Plymouth, there were points from Pedersen and (Jason) Crump but a great guest’s display from Leon Flint and good back-up from Dillon Ruml and Zane Keleher.

Edinburgh Monarchs (47): Sam Masters 10+1, William Lawson 4+2, Kye Thomson 10+0, Josh Pickering 12+1, Richie Worrall 6+0, Luke Crang 0+0, Nathan Greaves 5+0

Plymouth Gladiators (42): Jason Crump 7+0, Dillon Ruml 6+2, Zach Cook 2+1, Zane Keleher 5+0, Bjarne Pedersen 8+0, Leon Flint 13+1, Jason Edwards 1+0