EDINBURGH Monarchs No.1 William Lawson is facing a month out of action after he was taken to hospital with a suspected broken collarbone during last night's Premier League clash against Stoke Potters at Armadale.
In an extraordinary meeting punctuated by a litany of crashes and falls and which wasn't completed until 10.00pm, Monarchs, who basically ran with just four fit riders, somehow came out 53-39 winners to preserve their unbeaten home record.
Monarch
s will field a guest for Lawson in tonight's return clash at Loomer Road and will also operate the rider replacement facility again for crocked Thomas Jonasson, who has been advised to take four days rest after suffering concussion in a crash in Sweden earlier in the week.
Lawson came to grief on the third corner in heat six when Stoke's Andrew Moore locked up in front of him and his bike snaked.
Lawson clipped Moore's back wheel and was catapulted shoulder first into the safety fence.
The 21-year-old star, who was, incredibly, deemed to be responsible for the spill by the referee, who excluded him from the re-run, was attended to by track medics before being taken to Monklands Hospital.
Monarchs boss John Campbell said: "Everything that could go wrong did but we came through it all in the end.
"We had too many good riders not to beat Stoke. But hopefully we have used up all our bad luck for the season."
Stoke are probably cursing their luck for not capitalising on Monarchs' problems.
The Potters out-gated the home riders in most of the heats but couldn't hang on to the leads.
But Potters' 20-year-old skipper Ben Barker, his side's top scorer with 13 points, was proud of the fight his teammates put up.
He said: "Obviously you go into every meeting to win but Edinburgh are very strong at home.
"It was shame what happened to William. I love him to bits and get on really well with him.
"We had a chance to win but it went away from us.
"But not many teams will come to Armadale and run Edinburgh as close as we did."
Stoke are still without Lee Complin and will use Scunthorpe's Magnus Karlsson – a former Monarch – as a stand-in.
Newcastle's George Stancl stepped in last night and looked unbeatable after storming to victory in his first two rides. But he went off the boil and collected just three more points from his final two outings.
Home skipper Derek Sneddon covered most of Lawson's rides and the Falkirk star, who has dropped to reserve under the new averages, responded in fantastic style to amass 17 points from his seven races – including five race wins.
He was given excellent support by Ryan Fisher and Matthew Wethers, who scored 14 and survived an injury scare in heat 13, when he was brought down by Sneddon who shed a chain on the second bend and freewheeled into his team-mate, who clattered into the boards.
Wethers, amazingly, got up and won the restart, brilliantly heading home Stancl to thunderous applause.
Fisher picked up 13 and confessed the loss of Lawson was a big blow.
He said: "I would rather have taken a match loss than lose one of our own riders to injury. That was the key to us dropping so many points over the course of the match.
"I wasn't happy with my own bike, it had no power. I was forced to ride harder than I should have simply to try to make passes.
"I knocked off Klaus Jakobsen in one race because I didn't have the speed to go by him.
"I drove up the inside of him because I couldn't sit there and get third place. I don't know if I touched him but I scared him. I expected to be excluded and I was."
Monarchs were also hampered because Aaron Summers was riding in some pain following a crash in Germany two weeks ago.
The young Aussie said: "I'm still feeling sore, my ribs still hurt but I'm carrying on as best I can."
Summers had clutch problems early on and did well to pick up three points.
Andrew Tully, who has swapped places with Sneddon, seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in some of his races, and will be annoyed at accruing just five points from four starts.
Monarchs: Sneddon 17, Wethers 14, Fisher 13, Tully 5, Summers 3, Lawson 2.
Stoke: Barker 13, Stancl 9, Jakobsen 7, Moore 5, Evans 3, Burrows 1, Kristiansen 1.
The full article contains 775 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
