Stellar Monarchs compiled seven heat wins and were only six points behind Oxford Cheetahs with three heats to go but the roof fell in.
The Armadale outfit lost the last three races 5-1 giving Oxford a 54-36 win and leaving an 18-point deficit to be recovered for the aggregate bonus when Oxford visit the West Lothian track a week on Friday.
John Campbell, Monarchs’ team manager, (pictured left) said: “We had the bad gates at the finish and it was thrown away at that stage. We had some good performers, Kye Thomson won two races, Craig Cook and Justin Sedgmen did well until they got the poor gates against the top men at the end.”
Monarchs more than held their own in the early stages with Cook winning heats 1 and 5, Thomson in heat 3 and Sedgmen heat 6. Fredriksen narrowly missed third place in both heats 1 and 5.
Losses in heats 7 and 8 left Monarchs six behind down but Cook as a tactical substitute alongside Sedgmen gained a 5-1 in heat 9, Cook cleverly slipping past the home men to join his partner on the opening lap.
Monarchs then lost a 5-1 but further heat wins for Cook (heat 11) and Thomson (heat 12) kept hopes alive but the last three heats saw these hopes dashed.
Cook finished with 13 points to top score for Edinburgh while Scott Nicholls and Ashton Boughen both accumulated 13 for the home side.
At Poole, Pirates beat Berwick Jewson Bandits 52-38 with Tom Brennan top scoring for the home side with 13 and Rory Schlein collecting 13 for the visitors.
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