Max power for Lawson as he sends Monarchs into knockout cup semis

WILLIAM LAWSON roared to his second 15-point maximum in a row at Armadale last night to lead Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs into the Premier League Knockout Cup semi-finals.

The Capital side put the squeeze on Redcar Bears 55-38 in their quarter-final second leg clash – exactly the same scoreline as they achieved in their first leg triumph on Teeside on Thursday.

Lawson is beginning to dominate at Armadale to an almost frightening degree. The Perthshire ace won his first ride in a time of 54.6 seconds, just 0.2sec outside the track record set by Theo Pijper in 2006.

Lawson said: "I'm going to have a go at the record whenever I can. I overcooked one of the bends otherwise I might have got it."

The 21-year-old rider, who remains resolutely circumspect about his performances on track, executed a terrific outside pass on Redcar's James Grieves to win heat 10 and this was the highlight of his five-ride full house. "I felt I rode pretty well," added Lawson, "and to score another home maximum was really pleasing."

Without Andrew Tully and Thomas Jonasson who are on World Under-21 duty, Monarchs appeared to be stuck in first gear before they pulled away with a strong second-half effort.

Sean Stoddart replaced Tully at reserve and picked up six points-but with tail-end partner Aaron Summers enduring something of a nightmare, Redcar's Josh Auty and Arlo Bugeja outscored the Monarchs duo by a seven-point margin and that hasn't happened so far this season.

Summers fell off twice and earned just a solitary points. But the young Aussie has vowed to do better next week. He said: "I just had a bad night. I was trying a bit too hard in some of my races but I'll correct that. I was just happy to actually complete four laps in my final ride because I struggled in my other races."

Summers realises his Armadale form doesn't compare with his away scores and he admitted: "A lot of the away tracks are better for me. It is hard trying to get used to Armadale with its tight turns, but I'll get there."

Having lost their home leg, Redcar faced a near-impossible task in trying to overturn Monarchs whose confidence is sky-high right now.

James Grieves' tally of 13 points which included a six-point tactical win over Derek Sneddon and Summers in heat 12, prevented a total rout.

Grieves who confessed to not feeling well afterwards, tangled with Ryan Fisher in the third race-both men coming down on the first bend. The referee called all four riders back and Fisher took the chequered flag in the re-run.

Bears skipper Gary Havelock failed to win a race despite citing Armadale as one of his favourite tracks. The Englishman hurt his ankle when he careered into Monarchs star Matthew Wethers after picking up some drive coming out of the second bend in heat 11. And he was replaced by teammate Bugeja in heat 13. Certainly Havelock's final total of just four points will be considered a big disappointment given that previously he had only dropped three points in four visits to the Lothian Arena. But Auty conjured up a splendid ten points from reserve and he was the only Redcar rider to assist Grieves in keeping Monarchs at bay. Redcar team manager Brian Havelock didn't gloss over his side's shortcomings and said: "We faced an impossible task after losing our own leg.

"But Edinburgh have a cracking squad. You can't take that away from them. Monarchs started off in heat 1 at our place intent on beating us and duly did. So we have no excuses about what happened. We were never going to win at Armadale. And we had one or two problems – Dan Giffard had a fall and Gary wasn't quite on the ball and made a mistake in heat 11.

And our Finn Joni Keskinen wasn't on the pace at all. And we will have to look for riders this week to replace him. We can't go on like that."

Havelock added: "If Edinburgh had beaten us by just three or four points on Thursday we'd have come to Armadale with a bit more intent.

But it was such a big margin. At least we stayed with them and they only scored three 5-1s against us. But whoever Edinburgh meet in the semi-finals, they'll take some beating over two legs."

Aside from Lawson, Wethers was also unbeaten by the opposition and piled up 14 points from six rides.

Monarchs skipper Sneddon, who revealed he is suffering from a lack of confidence, at least won his second ride which will raise his spirits. But his partnership with Fisher is set to be dissolved soon with Sneddon likely to be paired with Thomas Jonasson. Fisher, who is single minded to say the least, amassed 13 points which included four wins. The Californian might have picked up a maximum also but tried too hard to catch Havelock in heat five and ended up third.

Monarchs were only four points ahead 26-22 after eight races but their trio of 5-1 advantages all came in the latter races which helped reflect their overall superiority.

Not that there was any panic. They had far too comfortable a cushion from their first match victory. Redcar certainly didn't roll over but quite simply didn't have enough of their squad on fire to compete with Monarchs.

Redcar secured just a sole heat victory when Grieves and Auty grabbed a 7-2 reward in the 11th race. The Monarchs bandwagon rolls on. ..

Monarchs: Lawson 15, Wethers 14, Fisher 13, Sneddon 6, Stoddart 6, Summers 1.

Redcar: Grieves 13, Auty 10, Havelock 4, Bugeja 4, Proctor 4, Giffard 2, Keskinen 1.