BSN Series: Glasgow Tigers 51-39 Edinburgh Monarchs
Stellar Monarchs battled hard but failed to recover from back-to-back 5-1 race defeats and finally went down by 12, losing out on an aggregate bonus point.
The Armadale combine, who won Friday’s clash at Armadale, 48-42, were only four behind after Heat 8 but Monarchs manager, Alex Harkess, admitted: “We just didn’t have enough at the bottom end.”
Gating became more and more important as the meeting went on and Harkess said: “We weren’t gating consistently.”
Earlier, Monarchs’ skipper Josh Pickering and evergreen Chris Harris traded positions before the Aussie pulled ahead but Tigers took a lead they never relinquished in Heat 2 as Lee Complin won after a mistake from Jacob Hook.
Heat 4 produced the race of the night as Kye Thomson (pictured courtesy of Stellar Monarchs) made the gate for Monarchs only passed by an excellent cut-back off the second bend by Tigers rider Ben Basso, Thomson repeated the move on bends three and four before Basso won off the last corner.
The turning point of the meeting came in Heat 9 the score at 26-22 in the Tigers favour. Former Tigers star Craig Cook was in for Monarchs against the powerful Danish duo of Basso and Claus Vissing.
Tigers gated best with Cook trying to squeeze into second ahead of Basso who charged hard under Cook entering the third bend of lap 2. When Cook tried the inside pass again on the next corner he drifted out, bringing down the home men.
The resulting disqualification for Cook wasn’t argued by many but Basso still had words to say to Cook as he came back round.
The resulting 5-1 in the re-run was matched in Heat 10 and with Tigers’ lead now 12 the only thing left to race for was the bonus point.
Monarchs gave themselves hope as Cook was brought in as a tactical substitute in Heat 12 promptly recording a maximum with Kye Thomson, but the match was over after a 5-1 in Heat 14 by home pair Vissing and Complin.
The Monarchs will now look to home and away fixtures against Berwick knowing a victory in both is required to progress in the BSN Shield.
Stellar Monarchs 39 : Pickering 11+1, Fredriksen 2, Thomson 6+2, Castagna 3, Cook 12+1, Bickley 1, Hook 4+1
Allied Vehicle Tigers 51 : Harris 12+1, Nowak 8+2, Basso 7+1, Vissing 10, Brennan 7, Complin 6+2, Pijper 1
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