Stellar Monarchs held an eight-point advantage in mid-match, but found it impossible to subdue visiting stars Charles Wright and Danny King as Redcar Bears earned a valuable road win at Armadale.
The pair only dropped one point between them in 11 rides, and took 5-1s in heats 13 and 15 which proved crucial.
Alex Harkess, Monarchs’ team manager, admitted the result was was very disappointing.
He added: “We had opened up a bit of a gap and I wanted to keep that gap, but it didn’t happen. It came down to a last heat decider and we had no-one to stand up to their top two who were dominant.”
Edinburgh Monarchs (44): Josh Pickering 6+0, Kye Thomson 10+2, Lasse Fredriksen 6+2, Paco Castagna 8+0, Justin Sedgmen 9+0, Max James 0+0, Connor Coles 5+1
Redcar Bears (46): Charles Wright 15+1, Connor Bailey 0+0, Dan Gilkes 4+1, Jason Edwards 6+0, Danny King 13+2, Ben Trigger 2+1, Jake Mulford 6+2
PICTURE: Alex Harkess (with blue jacket) in the pits. Picture by Nigel Duncan
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