Speedway: Monarchs ready to face fierce rivals

Oct 9 2008 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THE double-winning Scotwaste Monarchs face another big week, with fierce rivals the Glasgow Tigers coming to Armadale Stadium tomorrow (Friday).

They also face a potentially tricky away trip to Somerset this Wednesday for the second leg of the Premier playoffs — in which they hold a 21-point advantage — and go to Glasgow on Sunday for the final Premier League match of the season.

Glasgow Tigers’ visit on Friday is the second leg of the Scottish Cup, in which Monarchs hold a one-point lead after grabbing an amazing win in the last heat at Ashfield last Sunday.

Glasgow had led by four points going in to the last heat on Sunday, but Robert Ksiezak crashed and Shane Parker suffered engine failure, leaving Ryan Fisher and Andrew Tully to cruise home for a 5-0 heat advantage.

Monarchs obviously will hope to finish the job on Friday although they did not find it easy to subdue a tenacious Tigers’ team on their last visit in the league last month.

By now Monarchs will also know if they will be continuing in the Premier playoffs, heading towards the possibility of an Elite league place.

If they have managed to beat Somerset on aggregate they will face the winners of the King’s Lynn v Rye House semi-final, the winners of that then going on to race either Wolverhampton or Peterborough for a 2009 Elite League place.

Last Friday they really stormed into a 43-17 lead against Somerset after 10 heats at Armadale, only to be pegged back a bit in the subsequent races, including a shock exclusion for Monarchs’ captain Derek Sneddon for “spinning his wheel”.

Ryan Fisher and Andrew Tully were Monarchs’ top scorers with a dozen each, Tully being especially impressive with his overtaking skills.

William Lawson scored four points in the World Under-21 Final to finish 13th last Saturday. He will be back with the team this week.

(Teams) Scotwaste Monarchs: William Lawson, rider replacement for Thomas H Jonasson, Ryan Fisher, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Derek Sneddon (captain), Aaron Summers.

Glasgow Tigers:

Shane Parker, Lee Dicken, Peter Juul, guest replacement for Robert Ksiezak, Trent Leverington, Mitchell Davey, Anders Andersen.