THE short ferry trip from the Isle of Wight back to the mainland would have felt twice as long for Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs last night.
Although the Capital squad have found Smallbrook Stadium to be a graveyard in recent seasons, there was cautious optimism that in the wake of their excellent victory at Reading on Sunday, Monarchs had the momentum to end their Isle of Wight jinx.
Unfortunately their long losing streak continued as the Islanders humbled Monarchs 60-32 to notch up a very one-sided Premier League victory.
The result, however, keeps Monarchs at the top of the table alongside Somerset Rebels.
After Monarchs handed out a heavy beating to the Islanders at Armadale, their top star Jason Bunyan promised that the Smallbrook track would be "very deep" for the return fixture. And so it proved.
Monarchs director Mike Hunter said: "They were true to their word. Indeed they over-watered the track. We should perhaps take it as a compliment as they obviously feared we might win. Some locals believed we would.
"I also spoke to Somerset's promoter and team manager who were in attendance and they said they were rubbish round there as well. Yet I would have thought Somerset might have been better than us."
A lot of the races were won from the gate and there was a dearth of genuine passing. Monarchs Swedish star Thomas Jonasson provided one of the few moments of excitement in heat 11.
Jonasson, who trailed in last in his first two outings, was lying in third spot behind Kris Stojanowski and Andrew Bargh and surged past them both to take the chequered flag in tremendous style.
This was one of Monarchs' rare successes as the home side, who used rider replacement for the injured Cory Gathercole, won just as easily as the score suggests.
Monarchs star Ryan Fisher blew his big track engine after his second ride and this curtailed the Californian's scoring thereafter.
And skipper Derek Sneddon, who has recently been piling up points like an overworked hod carrier, managed a solitary second place and toiled to make any impression, picking up just one further point.
Sneddon said: "I've never done well at the Isle of Wight, and once again I just couldn't get to grips with the place. And although the team are riding fantastically well, this was never a match we had targeted as winnable."
Islanders top performers were Jason Bunyan who stormed to an impeccable maximum of 18 points and Paul Fry who scored a paid full house 15 points.
Hunter added: "Jason and Paul haven't been in that great from so far this season, yet they proved to be devastating in the scoring stakes.
"This was probably one of the Isle of Wight's best home performances.
"We simply didn't have enough going for us to keep the scores close.
"And we cannot seem to master tracks like the Isle of Wight."
Workington's Carl Stonehewer guested for Monarchs' injured heat leader William Lawson and picked up six points.
Stonehewer will also step in for Monarchs' home league clash against Premier Trophy finalists Birmingham Brummies at Armadale on Friday.
The Perry Barr side will be at full strength for the clash for the first time in months.
Islanders: Bunyan 18, Fry 15, Phillips 8, Stojanowski 8, Holder 7, Bargh 4.
Monarchs: Fisher 9, Stonehewer 6, Jonasson 5, Wethers 5, Tully 4, Sneddon 3, Summers 0.
The full article contains 580 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
