Defeated but not Destroyed
(Posted 14/03/08)

Many in the speedway world had expected the Monarchs to beat the Tigers comprehensively in the first leg of the Spring Trophy but the Tigers were never far enough behind to be able to take advantage of the tactical rules.

Things looked ominous after the first race however. Shane Parker made a good start but Ryan Fisher took him wide in a hard but fair opening bend. Shane lost his momentum and slipped to the back whilst Fisher pulled well clear followed by Derek Sneddon giving the Monarchs a 5-1 in the opening race.

Tigers immediately hit back although did need a bit of luck to do so. After a level start, Andrew Tully led heat 2 with Josh Grajczonek off the pace at the back after being caught out by the 4th bend in the opening lap. However, an uncharacteristic mistake from Tully saw him slide off on the second lap whilst leading, Dicken and Summers both reacting quickly to lay their bikes down and avoid him. It gave the Tigers another chance and Lee and Josh hit the front out of the gate. Summers cut up the inside of Grajczonek on the second bend but then slid off at the start of the second lap. Josh took full advantage and came through to claim a comfortable second place.

Our other young Australian debutant was out in heat 3 and seemed a little unlucky to be excluded. A wobble by Jonasson on the opening bend sent Mitchell Davey wide and he was unable to pull it back, colliding with the second bend fence. These decisions can go either way but unfortunately for Mitchell this one was given as an exclusion rather than an all four back. The re-run was well spread from the gate with the Monarchs on a 5-1 until Jonasson had bike problems at the end of the third lap. Trent took full advantage to come through and split the Edinburgh pair.

Dicken and Ksiezak gated in heat 4 but Wethers passed inside Lee Dicken at the end of the first lap. Dicken challenged for another two laps before Wethers pulled clear but he was unable to challenge Ksiezak who rode a good race to claim the win.

There seemed to be a bit of confusion in the edinburgh camp in heat 5. It all started with Jonasson being excluded for exceeding the 2 minute time allowance. Jonasson lined up off the 15m handicap with the remainder of the field moving gates to accommodate and it was then announced that in fact he was going to be replaced by Andrew Tully. With only 30 seconds of the second time allowance remaining a bemused Jonasson made his way back to the pits but Tully then failed to make it out in time and was also excluded under the 2 minute time allowance. At the third time of asking the heat got underway with only one Edinburgh rider, William Lawson, and it was he who was to win what was then a very uneventful heat from the tapes.

Fisher and Sneddon won heat 6 comfortably from the tapes despite Sneddon almost coming a cropper on the 4th bend at the end of the first lap and this was followed by another relatively unchallenged 5-1 for the home side in heat 7.

Tigers were unfortunate in heat 8 to be called back for an unsatisfactory start after Dicken and Bergstrom had gated ahead of their rivals. They were unable to repeat the feat, Sneddon gating for the home side. Bergstrom tried hard to find a way through in the early stages but was unable to find a passing line. Dicken claimed second spot from his temporary team mate coming off the final bend of the shared heat.

Shane Parker was up at the tapes giving Grajczonek some last minute pointers prior to the start of heat 9. The heat was to feature another fall, this time Jonasson coming off on the opening bends. Ksiezak did well to lay his bike down. The re-run saw Lawson win comprehensively from the gate although the improvement in the way Josh Grajczonek rode compared to his opening ride was clear to see in this heat.

Edinburgh's pairing were again first out of the gate in heat 10 but Leverington cut inside Fisher on the second bend, taking him wide, and powered through into second with Mitchell Davey following him through to hold third briefly. Fisher passed back inside Mitchell on the next bend and gave chase to Trent. The red mist appeared to come down and Fisher tried what was a rather ambitious move on Trent on the apex of the third and fourth bend one lap later. All he succeeded in doing was knocking the Glasgow rider off and earning himself an exclusion. After a slight case of handbags between the two, the re-run saw Sneddon gate but an error on the fourth bend was seized on by Leverington who came through on the inside into first. Unfortunately, the fourth bend was to claim another victim as Mitchell Davey came off and despite his attempts to free it his bike was caught under the fence resulting in another re-run with 2 riders only. Sneddon won this one comfortably from the gate although again the fourth bend seemed to catch him out on the final lap although this time Trent was not close enough to take advantage.

Shane Parker won heat 11 by a considerable distance but the heat was shared after Wethers passed Bergstrom on the opening lap, Tully passing him at the end of lap 2.

Leverington made the gate in heat 12 with Edinburgh's Jonasson again coming off on his own on the opening bends. Jonasson threw a tantrum, on the centre green and many missed Trent sliding off at the end of the second lap watching Jonasson's histrionics. The fall was costly though, gifting Summers the win ahead of Grajczonek although Trent remounted to claim the single point for third.

The meeting to date had been rather mundane but the crowd were treated to a fantastic race in heat 13. Ksiezak and Parker gated but an excellently timed manoevre from Fisher at the end of the first lap saw him pass both Tigers at the same time to hit the front. Parker immediately hit back and for the remaining 3 laps the two riders enjoyed an excellent tussle with the lead changing hands numerous times with both inside and outside passes. Coming out of the final bend, Shane was just ahead and held the line to take the chequered flag ahead of Fisher. By far the best race of the night, there were easily twice as many passes in this one race as were witnessed all the rest of the night.

Lawson won heat 14 easily from the gate with Lee Dicken doing well to hold off Andrew Tully for the entire four laps to secure second place. The Edinburgh pairing of Lawson and Fisher then comfortably won the final heat of the evening from the gate to leave the Tigers 13 points to make up in the return leg.

Other than heat 13, it wasn't a night of great speedway.

It was however the first action of the new year and it was important for the Tigers to blow away the cobwebs and come through the meeting unscathed.

Although never happy with a defeat, given that Shane is nowhere near his full fitness yet and we have two new youngsters in the side there were a lot of positives to take from the night. Both youngsters tried hard and that is all you can ask at this stage and Lee had a very good meeting, some were surprised he did not feature in heat 15. Trent will probably feel frustrated at his nights performance whilst Robert started well but faded..