Speedway: Monarchs fans set for more action

Sep 3 2009 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

FANS of the Scotwaste Monarchs can see more Speedway this month at Armadale than ever before, starting with matches on Friday and Saturday this weekend.

In form Workington Comets are the visitors this Friday night (start time 7.30pm) with Somerset Rebels coming on Saturday evening at the earlier time of 6.30pm.

The matches give Monarchs a chance of moving up the league and they certainly showed some encouraging form last Friday by beating Glasgow Tigers 50-39, which meant three match points on the Monarchs’ record.

It was a good effort with Ryan Fisher, Matthew Wethers and new boy Kevin Wolbert in great form.

Fisher was unbeaten and threw in a superb piece of team racing when covering Rajkowski to a heat 13 5-1 over top Glasgow riders Grieves and Parker.

Wolbert’s 12 points marked him as an outstanding acquisition and given recent team problems which have reduced the number of riders remaining from last year’s championship team to three, the 20-year-old German has really boosted everyone.

Workington have been picking up good away results recently and have emerged as serious challengers for a top-four play-off place, so with their heat leader trio of Doolan, Compton and Rymel they will present a big challenge. Saturday’s visitors Somerset are the team who gave Monarchs a great run for the title last season. They now have experienced Aussie Steve Johnston leading their side now and he is a guarantee of entertainment.

Fans attending Friday’s meeting will be given the chance of buying a double ticket for both matches, costs for that being £26 for adults, £20 for OAPs and £9 for children.

The following two Fridays (11th and 18th) the matches will be double headers, the first ever staged at the stadium. They will start at 7pm and costs for these events will be £22 for adults, £17 for OAPs and £7 for children.

Teams for Friday:

Scotwaste Monarchs: Ryan Fisher, Max Dilger, Kevin Wölbert, Matthew Wethers (captain), Michal Rajkowski, Aaron Summers, Byron Bekker.

Workington Comets: Kevin Doolan, Phil Morris, Adrian Rymel, Richard Lawson, Andre Compton, Craig Cook, John Branney.

Teams for Saturday:

Scotwaste Monarchs: Ryan Fisher, Max Dilger, Kevin Wölbert, Matthew Wethers (captain), Michal Rajkowski, Aaron Summers, Byron Bekker.

Somerset Rebels: Steve Johnston, Simon Walker, Jari Makinen, Emil Kramer, Corey Gathercole, Nick Simmons, Justin Sedgmen.

Monarchs visit to Birmingham last Wednesday was rained off and will now be restaged on September 16.