Kings Lynn Stars v Edinburgh Monarchs

Even with a 10-point start we offered a poor challenge to the home side, largly due to machine problems, in our opening match at King's Lynn.

It's hard to remember a night when we had more problems. There were six occurences of the letter E in our scorechart, and even that doesn't tell the full story as neither Matthew Wethers nor Aaron Summers ever shook off the effects of their machine problems.

The home side will have been very happy. They had two unbeaten riders, one of these being Tomas Topinka even though he looked a bit lethargic at times.

Chris Schramm gated superbly and recorded a paid max, and most impressive of all really was Darcy Ward who was riding in his first match at Premier level and looked tremendous. A couple of falls through over-enthusiasm kept his score down.

If he adapts as well to the smaller circuits, then the Aussies will have another world-class prospect on their hands.

The idea of the ten point start was a bit of a waste of time. Instead of treating it as a 10-point first leg win, it was built in to the second leg and therefore prevented us using TRs as early as we otherwise would have. Presumably that also means that if we had stayed 10 up till heat 4, King's Lynn could have used a TR!

Right from the first heat we hit problems. With Schramm in front, Ryan Fisher and Aaron Summers seemed settled with Topinka behind them. However after a couple of laps Fisher stopped, and with this encouragement Topinka fairly easily picked off Summers.

Sean Stoddart didn't leave the line in heat 2 and although Michal Rajkowski kept in touch, he could find no way through against the home reserves.

At last we achieved something in heat 3. Thomas went ahead from the favourable gate 1, with Andrew behind him, only for Graversen to fall in the path of partner Christan Henry.

Thomas led the rerun and this time Tully had to come from the back in a good ride to pass Christian.

Matthew Wethers looked good in heat 4 - for a couple of laps. He led with Sanchez and Ward snapping at his heels, but ground to a halt with apparently a serious blow up of his new engine.

Next disappointment was Aaron Summers failing to leave the start in heat 6, but this time Fisher passed Henry for a race win. Ward came galloping through late in the heat and almost caught Fisher.

Matthew Wethers was ruled out of heat 6 while he sorted out his machine, replaced by Sean Stoddart who actually made the start. However the others were past him by the second bend as we lost another 5-1.

Even with the 10-point start we were now behind.

The Jonasson-Tully pair looked our best bet but they lost heat 7, won by Sanchez. Tully put Graversen under pressure but failed to pass.

Our Polish reserve at last made a start in heat 8 and led down the back straight, but he stopped entering the next bend, and this truly was becoming tiresome on a chilly night.

We managed to share heat 9, simply because Darcy Ward seemed to be trying to break the track record and fell while well ahead. Christian Henry, not really impressive, still managed to take a win.

Heat 10 was a good one. Thomas had the unfavourable gate 4 against Schramm and Topinka, but he managed to race round the outside of Topinka. He held second up to the final turn but rashly tried to sweep round Schramm, leaving the gate open for Topinka who slipped into second place.

We then had a little flurry of success. Ryan came out on a TR as we had at last managed to get 20 behind on the 'true' score, and he led from Sanchez. There was no backup as Summers dropped out again. Sanchez fell on the third corner of lap two, and after announcing that there would be a rerun, ref Entwhistle mercifully decided to award us a 6-2.

Darcy Ward fell challenging Thomas H Jonasson in heat 12, and with Rajkowski ahead of Henry we took the 5-1. It was remarkable how quickly Ward cleared the track after what was quite a heavy fall, and this was appreciated by all.

Heat 13 was an embarrassingly easy home 5-1, even Fisher blown away, and a win for Sanchez in heat 14 ensured that King's Lynn won the silverware they had lined up for the occasion. Andrew Tully put in one of his exciting chases but to no avail.

Topinka made the gate in heat 15 with Fisher second, but he couldn't even hang on to this consolation as Schramm forced through on the last bend to complete his paid maximum. It looked as though Ryan may have had another machine problem.

So we were well beaten. In 2008 we have only one or two 'nights to forget' but we have certainly started 2009 with one.

Kings Lynn Stars v Edinburgh Monarchs

The Monarchs open the new season on Wednesday with an away match, no not at Glasgow for a change, but at King's Lynn.

This is a one off Challenge Match giving the riders their first opportunity to take to the track as a team this season.

The Edinburgh side shows two changes in personnel from last year's Championship winning side with Derek Sneddon and William Lawson replaced by Michal Rajkowski and Sean Stoddart. The King's Lynn side on the other hand are unrecognisable from the side which challenged for the title last season.

Gone are Kevin Doolan, Rusty Harrison, Shaun Tacey, John Oliver and Simon Lambert. In fact they have only two of last year's squad in this year's side and one of them, Kozza Smith will not be riding due to his injuries including a broken collarbone, broken arm and broken ribs, sustained at Ipswich last week. That only leaves Tomas Topinka as the sole survivor.

In an usual twist, Edinburgh will start with a 10 point lead (as if they had won a notional first leg by 50-40) in order to compensate the Stars' home advantage because the challenge is over the one leg. Under this season's new rules teams are able to use two tactical rides (Trs) if they fall badly in arrears. The first TR can be used when the losing team is ten points or more in arrears but the second can only be used if the team subsequently finds itself twelve points in arrears. There will be no starts from 15 metres back for tactical rides since the old tactical substitute wheeze has been abolished.

The Monarchs did well at Saddlebow Road last season drawing the Premier League match after leading by four points with one heat to go and doing enough in the Play-offs to win through on aggregate. The Stars will be out for 'revenge' or so we are led to believe but in reality it's two different sides this time round.

Interestingly Michal Rajkowski did not ride at the Norfolk Arena last year but his previous visit there in 2007 yielded him 16 points from 7 rides at reserve in Newport's colours. A repeat of that would make the Monarchs a very difficult team to beat especially with the ten point lead.

King's Lynn haven't had their problems to seek since they first declared their team for the season. John Oliver decided to remain in Australian but the Stars were very fortunate to find the Argentinian, Emiliano Sanchez, available and eager to step into the gap. Then their were Visa problems for new Australian 'sensation' Darcy Ward although he is now in the country and will be in the Stars' team. Last week Kozza Smith's crash is likely to see him sidelined for 8 to 10 weeks so the Stars will use the Rider Replacement in his absence.

How the home side's team gel in this opening match will be interesting to watch. Christian Henry was a surprise signing for them during the winter, more so because in 2007 he managed only 4 points in his sole visit and last year he managed only 1 both times from 4 outings. Much will be expected from Chris Schramm who has returned to the Premier League after a spell at Ipswich while Emiliano Sanchez will be looking to improve on his 6+1 from 5 rides last year and 2 from 4 rides in 2007.

Heading the side is Tomas Topinka who has always ruled the roost at the track. Indeed last year he finished with an 11.35 average. In the three years prior to that his worst average was 11.14 ? quite a record!

It's at reserve that King's Lynn hope to provide a massive punch in the very highly rated newcomer Darcy Ward and Jan Graversen who rode for Mildenhall last season. It's hard to make a prediction for this match but it's likely to take the Stars some time before they fire on all cylinders this season. They will nonetheless be hard to beat round the Norfolk Arena. While it would be great for the Monarchs to start off with a win, I'd settle for some good performances and an injury-free match to set the team up for the testing times ahead.

The Edinburgh top end of Ryan Fisher and Thomas H Jonasson are more than capable of matching King's Lynn's top two, whoever they turn out to be. Matthew Wethers and Andrew Tully are as good a back up to these two as to be found in the Premier League while Aaron Summers will surely be looking forward to returning to the track where he did so spectacularly well last October. Hopefully Sean Stoddart will have recovered from his expensive machine troubles riding for Berwick at the weekend.