MONARCHS EDGE FIRST LEG

EDINBURGH raced to a 5-1 in the last race of their BSN Series semi-final first leg against Poole to establish a narrow advantage with a 46-44 win on the night.

The Pirates led by six points at the halfway stage but the Monarchs levelled by Heat 11 only to concede a 5-1 to Richard Lawson and Zach Cook in Heat 13.

Reserve Mitchell Cluff (8) won Heat 14 with Paco Castagna third to narrow the gap to two, and in Heat 15 Lawson and Cook were defeated by Justin Sedgmen and Kye Thomson as the hosts edged proceedings on the night.

Sedgmen topped the Edinburgh scoring with 12 points and Jonathan Grahn won three races to finish with nine, whilst Cook collected 11+1 for Poole who stage the second leg at Wimborne Road on June 10.

Cluff said: “I woke up yesterday with bad ‘flu, I couldn’t breathe, had a sore throat and I actually didn’t want to be here earlier today. But I got on with the job and I knew if I put the kevlars on then I’d go for it.

“I had a good meeting, just one bad race, and I made a final change for 14 and it worked really well. Anything can happen in the second leg.”

Cook said: “We can’t be upset with the final result. They are a strong team up here and it was a bit nip and tuck early on, and they pulled back a six-point lead. I think being two points down going into the second leg is not a bad position.  

“I was happy with my own performance and I think throughout the whole team everyone did well. If we end up throwing away just a two-point deficit then I think something will have gone very wrong, especially given our previous home form, but that doesn’t mean we can take our eye off the ball. We just need to go in as we have been all season and aim for that Final.”

Watch the action from Heat 15 (courtesy of EMTV)

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Photo credit: JACK CUPIDO