Edinburgh Monarchs blast past Comets as club rejects postponement request

Justin Sedgmen is sent crashing to the deck in a nasty-looking heat four crash. Picture: Jack Cupido.

Workington Comets' late plea to have this Championship meeting postponed was swiftly declined by an Edinburgh Monarchs side who ran out resounding 55-35 winners.

The Cumbrian outfit felt aggrieved they were required to field a depleted side after the much-publicised Microsoft outage had caused chaos at airports across the globe. Both ex-Monarch Claus Vissing and German reserve Celina Liebmann were unable to reach the West Lothian circuit, with the latter stuck 370 miles away in Luton.

The Comets were therefore left with little choice as they hurried to acquire two guests, bringing in National League rider Laylan Richardson and Monarchs Academy's Mason Watson.

Both Vissing and Liebmann's presence would have arguably made for a more entertaining spectacle, not to mention the prospect of a much tighter battle out on track. However, the show must go on and the Monarchs capitalised despite losing Justin Sedgmen to concussion following a nasty heat four spill. The Australian has been in terrific form this season and sight of the 32-year-old being stretchered into an ambulance could have upset the apple cart. It didn't and Monarchs deservedly took the points that sees them climb off the foot of the table. Josh Pickering again led the way on 13 with both skipper Paco Castagna and Lasse Fredriksen just behind on 12 and 11 respectively. Kye Thomson also chipped in with an impressive paid 10, as did reserve Connor Coles. Max James also played his part with paid six.

For the visitors, well Craig Cook was beaten just once by Pickering as he picked up the chequered flag in five of his six outings. The Comets can also take some heart as they returned south of the border with the aggregate bonus point following their 61-29 demolition of the Monarchs back in May.

Off the track, however, I get the feeling some of the animosity surrounding Monarchs' decision to turn down Workington's 11th hour request to have the meeting shelved may just rumble on into the new week - at least between riders and supporters.

Social media is a great platform for healthy debate. Speedway, after all, is subjective.

My take is Monarchs were completely vindicated in their decision to press ahead with the meeting. Why should they be penalised for two of their opponents being unable to fulfil their commitments? Monarchs themselves have international riders who fly in from the continent on a weekly basis. Both Castagna and Fredriksen arrived in the Capital 24 hours beforehand. Now, racing commitments elsewhere might have meant this wasn't possible for Vissing or Liebmann. I don't know their individual schedules. But, quite frankly, tough s**t. Sport isn't fair. Life isn't fair.

Had Monarchs reluctantly accepted Workington's plea to rearrange the meeting for a future date, the promotion would have been castigated from pillar to post by their own set of supporters for agreeing to do so.

On a week where the club had to rely on the Monarchs Fans Trust to step in and boost the coffers to the tune of £10,000, incurring any unnecessary additional costs with no end product would have been completely futile. Has Monarchs' sporting integrity been compromised? Not in the slightest. Had the shoe been on the other foot, would the play-off chasing Comets been so forthcoming in agreeing to a restaging? I very much doubt it.