The Newcastle "Sapphire Engineering" Diamonds held a slender two point lead from Edinburgh's first leg of the brand new trophy - the Premier Shield going into last night's second leg, but as expected it ended up a tight affair.
But it was the Diamonds who carried off where they left of in 2010, by winning national trophies - the Premier Shield being their first into their 2011 trophy cabinet.
With a Newcastle 4-2 in Heat One, and a superb win from the revitalised Rene Bach, Edinburgh reserve guest Robert Branford took a big win in the second, but behind Monarch Ashley Morris and Diamond Richie Worrall were battling hard for the last point, won on the line by the Newcastle man in a reverse 2-4 and the gap over all was back to two, and level on the night 6-6.
The big break in scoring came in the fourth race when Mark Lemon shot out to lead, but behind Worrall battled well to move into second place for a Newcastle maximum 5-1 and take a six point aggregate lead, 60-54, 14-10 on the night.
Bach's confidence took another major boost in Heat six when he passed the fast moving Kalle Katajisto round the outside of bend three on lap two to bring the house down and record another Newcastle 4-2, taking the score on the night to 21-15, and 67-55 overall.
Three 3-3s followed before Bach was out on track again and continued his resurgence by taking a massive victory in Heat 10 with Sneddon hanging on for third after being barged out of the way by Andrew Tully on bend one in a 4-2, a score repeated in 11 taking the score to 38-28.
Ten up for Newcastle meant the Monarchs could nominate a rider for double points, and Tully was one designated as the tactical ride in Heat 12, which paid off nicely for the visitors with Tully winning for six points in an important 2-7 to Edinburgh tightening the match to 40-35, and on aggregate it was 86-79.
Heat 13 saw Lemon sent scuttling towards the fence, taken viciously wide by Katajisto, but it worked for the Monarchs who, despite a massive challenge from Bach held on to the 1-5 which took the score tantalisingly close again at 41-40 (87-84 overall) with two races to go.
In the 14 Robson took a shock inside pass under Craig Cook on the third lap to sneak the trophy for the Diamonds, but the match on the night was still in the balance, 45-42.
Katajisto completed his brief of wrecking all the Diamonds' maximum totals by passing Robson off bend two and then defending his high-speed lead from a barrage of attack from behind, but Katajisto held on, the won on the night thankfully going to way of Newcastle.
Team Manager George English said: "We really deserved this win and the trophy tonight, and it was just rewards for Rene [Bach] who really regained his form and is now looking forwards to another record-breaking season with the Diamonds.
"The Monarchs played their part and gave us a great battle, and a fine speedway meeting, and without worthy opposition you don't get good speedway - so our congratulations and thanks to them as well."
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