Speedway: Title in sight for Monarchs after superb success over Sheffield

Monarchs collected all four points and their championship juggernaut is beginning to reach maximum speed as they pull further ahead of chief rivals Newcastle Diamonds at the top of the table.

Monarchs are now 13 points ahead of the Tynesiders and co-promoter John Campbell, who is trying hard to restrain himself from extolling his side's credentials from the rooftops, said today: "It is getting close to the point where will be uncatchable, and I calculate, if we take three points from our final three home meetings, we will reach the sixty-point mark without even taking into account what we might pick up from our five away meetings.

"Newcastle can only reach sixty five if they win all their final matches. We could actually finish with a total of eighty points if we lift everything available to us and what a performance that would be."

However Campbell is urging caution against Berwick Bandits at Armadale tonight, saying: "We have to be careful, after two big away wins this week, we might just get caught out.

"And we cannot dismiss Berwick, who have our former rider Michal Rajkowski in their team at reserve, and he could be capable of a potential 21-point maximum if he gets seven rides."

Monarchs' triumph against a Sheffield team who had hit form recently, deserves to be lauded and Campbell revealed how an intervention by Kevin Wolbert helped fashion their win.

"Kalle (Katajisto) had been struggling to get out of the starts in the early part of the match and Kevin asked him how he had his bike set up.

"When Kalle told him, Kevin replied it was all wrong, and changed it before Kalle went out in heat 14, and it worked as Kalle won the race from the gate."

Indeed, it was a timely win and, with partner William Lawson coming in third, this 4-2 advantage put Monarchs 46-38 up with one race left.

And it was perhaps fitting that it was top scorer Ryan Fisher, who basked in the limelight in the heat-15 finale.

The Californian, who had been a pivotal scorer in his previous outings, was ranged against Sheffield's top duo Josh Auty and captain Ricky Ashworth, who had been brought down by his team-mate two heats earlier.

In a classic race, Fisher, who was attacked on both sides by Auty and Ashworth, resisted their attempts to pass him and flew home in style to protect Monarchs' eight-point lead and the four match points.

Auty took the trouble to come out and shake Fisher's hand after the race to acknowledge just how well he had ridden. That was nice of him", said Fisher. "It was a tough old battle to stay ahead of them both but I just kept my wits about me and went for it."

Monarchs, incredibly, were 10-2 up after just two heats and this provided the ideal platform for them to build on.

Campbell added: "I wasn't sure what would happen simply because Sheffield have been doing well of late but our whole team performed brilliantly again and everybody did just the right thing at the right time. And that's because the team are so keen to do well for each other.

"Ryan was immense in the last race and I thought Auty was going to get by him.

"Auty is exceptional round Sheffield and I thought he had got under Ryan on the first corner but Ryan just blasted round him again. It was an impressive show from Ryan."

All the Monarchs picked up points and as a unit they only posted four last places, and that on its own is something of a record at Sheffield.

Sheffield: Ashworth 12, Franc 10, Auty 9, Hall 6, Lambert 3, North 1, Skidmore 0.

Monarchs: Fisher 12, Wethers 9, Wolbert 8, Lawson 7, Tully 6, Katajisto 4, Bugeja 3.