EDINBURGH Monarchs track staff worked miracles to get last night's Premier League clash against Newport Wasps at Armadale on but the mudbath conditions proved something of a leveller.
Un the end the Capital outfit laboured to defeat their visitors 51-41 in a meeting which wasn't short of talking points.
A trainee referee was in charge of proceedings and, although under the supervision of a qualified official, some of his decisi
ons left a lot to be desired.
Ryan Fisher fell twice, Andrew Tully also came to grief on two occasions, and Michal Rajkowski came a cropper as well.
All the incidents occurred on the first bend yet the referee, instead of restarting the races, abandoned any flexibility of the rules and disqualified the Monarchs riders.
Fisher, who was suffering from a cold and could barely hang on to his bike, was incensed by his exclusion in Heat 1 after Wasps ace Chris Kerr took his wheel away.
And Tully delivered a verbal volley at the referee's box when he was excluded in Heat 13.
In fact, Tully had laid down his bike thinking Wasps captain Paul Fry was about to come down in front of him.
Fry had come to grief in his opening race, damaging the forks on his bike in the process and making it virtually impossible for him to turn his machine into the corners in his other outings.
It's debatable whether Fry should even have been allowed to continue riding on a damaged bike.
The Wasps, however, did seem to cope better in the wet than the Monarchs and their 5-1 in the first race, following Fisher's demise, was something of a shock.
Indeed Monarchs only led 26-22 after eight races and it wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that the Wasps, currently second bottom of the table, could pull off a major upset.
But, as the track began to dry out, Monarchs regained some poise and racked up three 5-1 advantages in the second half to storm ahead 47-31 after Heat 13.
Wasps gave their new signing Leigh Lanham a tactical ride in that particular race but the Englishman trailed in third behind Monarchs captain Matthew Wethers and Fisher, which finally ended any hope Newport had of putting the brake on their hosts.
To their credit Wasps did end on a high note when Kerr and Lanham took maximum points against Tully and Wethers.
There won't be many teams who come to Armadale and open and finish with a 5-1 scoreline.
Lanham, making his Wasps debut after replacing No.1 Mark Lemon this week, was pleased with his 12-point score. He said: "I was a bit nervous because Mark left some big shoes to fill. But I came to Armadale to enjoy myself and that's what I did. Edinburgh are a fantastic side who will be up there again at the end of the season.
"The conditions certainly helped us early on because the Edinburgh lads probably threw their bike set-ups out of the window. We capitalised on that but in the end we simply ran out of steam."
Lanham added that he was disappointed by his falure to double his points in Heat 13, admitting: "I did have a game plan. I thought Ryan (Fisher) was going to run past the corner but he suddenly turned his bike back on to the line I was going to take.
"So the Monarchs boys got away and there was little I could do to catch them."
Newport's other new signing, Swede Jonas Andersson, scored three points.
Monarchs top performer was reserve Aaron Summers, who romped to a brilliant 13-point haul from six rides, including three race wins.
Wethers enjoyed mixed fortunes and won just a single race from his 11-point tally.
He said: "The track was pretty poor and it was difficult to race on, and at times it was a struggle for both teams. Because of all the rain it took away a lot of our home advantage but full credit to the track staff, we were lucky to get a meeting at all.
"But the track was barely raceable you were simply waiting for someone to make a mistake. It was all about getting out of the second bend in front.
"But we didn't panic and started to ride a lot better once the surface began to dry out and we got home with a little bit to spare."
Certainly Monarchs threw away a lot of points which was down to the number of falls they suffered Fisher's lowly five point return simply compounded matters and, without doubt, the Californian, despite feeling under the weather, won't be at all happy with this performance, which will need to improve if Monarchs are to open their away account at Rye House Rockets tonight.
Monarchs: Summers 13, Rajkowski 11, Wethers 11, Tully 8, Fisher 5, Stoddart 3.
Newport: Lanham 12, Kerr 9, Holder 8, Frampton 7, Andersson 3, Fry 1, Rutherford 1.
The full article contains 842 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
