Skipper Paco Castagna was counted out in Heat Three and that was a huge blow for Edinburgh Monarchs who failed to claw back the 12-point deficit to Redcar Bears and exited the Knockout Cup.
Jordan Jenkins, on Castagna’s inside, couldn’t get turned going into the bend, resulting in both Castagna and team-mate Justin Sedgmen crashing as well as Jenkins.
The skipper flew through the air and landed on the other side of the air fence. Injured ankles is the early diagnosis.
Rider replacement did not prove suitable compensation, contributing four points with only Kye Thomson beating an opposition rider from a Castagna ride.
Thomson said: “It was a shame what happened with the captain going over the fence, that was nasty. I’m just glad he’s on his feet even though they don’t work so good at the moment.
“It put a bit of a damper on the team, but we fought hard, it just wasn’t enough and Redcar came on strong towards the end.”
The top three home men were exemplary scoring 36 between them. Kye Thomson’s first two rides featured the best overtaking of the night as he chased and passed first Jason Edwards and then Jake Allen, finishing the night by passing Allen again to back Dan Thompson for the match-saving 5-1 in heat 15.
Dan Thompson was everything that could be asked of a No 1, losing only to fast Danish rider Klindt in Heat 13, and Justin Sedgmen won three of his four races.
There just wasn’t enough in back up. Jonatan Grahn won Heat 1 then faded and was unable to cover key heats 8 and 14, while the reserves were badly outgunned by the Redcar duo with a tally of 15-3 to the visitors from 9 rides each.
Redcar were solid even though they provided only five heat winners to Monarchs’ ten. Young guns Ace Pijper, Jody Scott and captain Jason Edwards were all impressive as was Jake Allen and it didn’t matter that their top average man, Nicolai Klindt, was not firing on all cylinders.
Edinburgh Monarchs (45): Dan Thompson 13+1, Jonatan Grahn 6+0, Justin Sedgmen 10+1, Paco Castagna 0+0, Kye Thomson 13+1, Mitch Cluff 1+0, Jordy Loftus 2+0
Redcar Bears (45): Nicolai Klindt 6+1, Ace Pijper 7+1, Jordan Jenkins 1+1, Jake Allen 9+1, Jason Edwards 7+1, Jake Mulford 6+1, Jody Scott 9+2
In Glasgow, Tigers beat Plymouth Gladiators 47-43 in the MAXiCab KO Cup quarter-final, first leg, and the home side were plagued by several mechanical issues which cost them dearly.
Tigers go to Plymouth tonight (Saturday) in the second-leg to decide who progresses to the semi-finals.
PICTURE: Paco Castagna celebrates, but he was in pain against Redcar
Tigers’ team manager, Cami Brown said: “Plymouth are a really good side this season with Ashfield specialists so I knew it as going to be a tough night
“I felt the boys got stuck in. It’s never easy when you’ve got riders missing and have guests in the team, but we threw away far too many points with bike problems and we just weren’t starting well enough.”
GLASGOW 47: Kyle Howarth 11+1, Chris Harris 10, Nick Morris 9+1, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 5+1, Sam Hagon 5+1, Simon Lambert 5, Freddy Hodder 2+1
PLYMOUTH 43: Danny King 14, Scott Nicholls 9+1, Daniel Klima 8+1, Ben Barker 7, Joe Thompson 5+2, Tom Spencer 0, Anze Grmek r/r
