Speedway: Monarchs are aiming to reign

May 14 2009 by Eric MacKinnon, West Lothian Courier

THIS week sees the West Lothian-based Scotwaste Monarchs and Scottish rivals Glasgow Tigers do battle in a double-header which will decide their fate in the Premier Trophy.

And it is a clash that the county side are determined to win - despite facing major selection problems.

The trophy is presently proudly on display in the Monarchs trophy cabinet in Armadale and as holders they will qualify for the semi-finals if they win Friday’s home fixture.

Unfortunately they have team problems which may affect the issue and are facing a riders selection crisis.

They will certainly be without Aaron Summers who is on his way to the Czech Republic where he competes on Saturday in the World Under-21 quarter finals at Mseno.

Summers has been a key man this year and his rides will have to be shared between Andrew Tully and the reserves.

Even worse, they are waiting on a fitness report from top man Ryan Fisher who crashed heavily riding for his Elite League team Swindon on Monday night.

He was able to rise after falling and being hit by an oncoming machine, but he had to pull out of the meeting and was having trouble walking.

At full strength, the Monarchs would strongly fancy their chances of winning at home and go into the races with their traditional rivals in good form.

They showed their excellent form with a 59-31 win in the first leg of the Knockout Cup tie against Sheffield last Friday, in a meeting affected by bad weather all day.

It didn’t bother Fisher who took five wins for his first full maximum of the season.

Andrew Tully too was in great form with just one point dropped, and everyone other than Thomas Jonasson scored well.

Jonasson sadly lost his father the previous week and could have done with better luck, but he suffered endless machine problems and was very despondent after the match.

Steps are being taken to ensure that his bikes are going better this week.

Glasgow will be using guest rider Tom P Madsen in place of Ross Brady.

The city side will also use rider replacement for Peter Juul, who is in the European under-19 championship over the weekend.

These changes should make the Tigers more formidable with James Grieves taking one of Juul’s rides.

Teams for Friday’s meeting (riding order) will be as follows:

Scotwaste Monarchs: Ryan Fisher, rider replacement for Aaron Summers, Thomas H Jonasson, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers (captain), Michal Rajkowski, Sean Stoddart.

Glasgow Tigers: Shane Parker (captain), rider replacement for Peter Juul, Tom P Madsen, Josh Grajczonek, James Grieves, Mitchell Davey, guest reserve.