Double Win Puts Us In Third Spot

The Border Roofing Monarchs won both matches in tonight's double header at Armadale, beating Redcar 62-28 and Plymouth 39-30 in a match abandoned at heat 11, and that was enough to move us into third place in the table.

Unfortunately after a brilliant display against Redcar Max Clegg was unluckily injured at the end of the first match, so we had to use a makeshift reserve pair against the Devils, who also had problems at 6 and 7. Early signs are that while he is sore, Max isn't too badly injured and we should see him soon – fingers crossed.

Our number 7 guest Rob Shuttleworth was also injured, after just one bend of heat 2. He has a shoulder injury, we wish him well. Of course his absence meant that Max had seven rides against Redcar.

We were racing from the start with a weakened side, so the match against Redcar was expected to be a tricky one. However in all honesty the Bears were incredibly poor and offered almost no challenge. They had two race winners – Hugh Skidmore in heat 3, and Jye Etheridge in heat 14, an awarded race after Max Clegg had accidentally been brought down heavily by his partner Mark Riss.

It was pretty obvious that Max should have been awarded second but it was given as a 5-1 to the Bears. It didn't make much difference.

Our best performers were Kevin Wolbert with a full 15 point maximum, and Ludvig Lindgren who proved to be a superb guest with a 5-ride paid maximum. Max Clegg was also brilliant, and it was so unfortunate that his highest ever score of 14+3 had to end with an injury.

Ryan Fisher and the Riss brothers also picked up substantial points as we recorded by far our best score of the season.

Ryan Fisher had stopped in heat 1 after a good start, and Rob Shuttleworth's fall followed by the win for Skidmore had the scores level at 9-9. The next 5 heats would all have been home 5-1s but for an engine problem for Max Clegg in heat 7 which might have been caused by a collision with Andersen.

We took another 5 5-1s in the remainder of the match, with Lasse Bjerre, David Bellego and Tobias Busch all completely at sea. Believe it or not the score actually flatters Redcar, they were even worse than it suggests.

Clearly we were going to have to work harder in the second fixture, in which we had Kev Whelan replacing Max Clegg and Lee Payne guesting at no. 7.

We got off to a good start with a 5-1 from Lindgren and Fisher after Jack Holder had fallen. Amazingly we also took a 4-2 in the reserves heat!

Shelby Rutherford looped at the start and Lee Payne rode a great race to win from Etheridge with Kev Whelan riding steadily for the point. Todd Kurtz then narrowly beat Mark Riss who rode very well in heat 3, and Kevin Wolbert took his sixth win of the night in heat 4.

Mark Riss won heat 5 with Erik at the back, then we saw a truly hair-raising heat 6! Ryan Fisher was on a new unfamiliar engine and he rode very wide while Kyle Newman was trying to slip round the line. Lindgren came into the picture as well and somehow squeezed between Ryan and the fence to win which Fisher dropped back to third. It was quite something!

We then had a bit of a delay while the starting gate needed attention. Wouldn't you know it – this has almost never happened at Armadale, but it went bad on us in a double header.

We got it sorted and took another 4-2 to go 12 ahead, but Ryan Fisher was then excluded for clipping Stefan Nielsen and bringing him down in heat 8.

Heat 9 was a good team ride by the Riss brothers, even though second place was given on the line two Newman (wrongly).

Lindgren and Fisher took 5 from heat 10 so at least we had reached the point at which the result could stand. There was just enough time for heat 11 in which Holder won his TR ride, taking the first point of the night off Kevin Wolbert. It was now after 10pm, so the match was abandoned.

Double Trouble

It's a double header this week as we look to make up for the multitude of lost meetings facing off against the Redcar SG Petch Bears and Plymouth Devils in Premier League action.

Both of these fixtures are rearranged fixtures from previous rained off affairs although both sport different line-ups from the last time we saw them.

Redcar are first up and visit on the back of an excellent away draw at Peterborough. With 2 ex-Monarchs in their line-up alongside some visitors with Armadale pedigree they cannot be taken lightly.

It'll be a big welcome back to Tobias Busch who helped us to lift the 2010 Premier League. It was a shame that we could not get Busch enough meetings to gain a true average and to become an asset but we have watched on in interest as he has made a name for himself on the continent and returned to these shores. Second and more recent by far of the ex-Monarchs in the Bears septet is Jye Etheridge. Jye was a popular if unsuccessful signing for the Monarchs and eventually we had to make a move to try and guarantee us some more points. Jye has settled in nicely at Redcar though and is showing the form we hoped for when we signed him now that he is getting a run at reserve. Alongside the former home heroes are usually excellent visitor Lasse Bjerre, trending upwards David Bellego and Jonas B Anderson and ever steady Hugh Skidmore and Lee Payne.

After the Redcar match we will move onto the Plymouth Devils. We have seen the Devils at Armadale already this year having disposed of the Devon men in the KO cup winning the home leg comfortably 54-36.

It's been an up and down season for Plymouth with the dram of whether they would run at the start of the season being followed by success after introducing Brady Kurtz and taking exciting and deserved victory at the fours this followed by Kurtz's departure and a downtick in form. There are a couple of changes to the team we saw way back towards the beginning of May. Kyle Newman has returned to the fold after missing the prior meetings due to injury and illness. Kyle is in flying form as will be attested to by anyone who saw his heats from the Belle Vue vs. Poole match on Sky last week. The other change is at reserve where recent signing Steve Boxhall misses out due to a crash last weekend and he is replaced by the aforementioned Etheridge who is in for a busy night.

The Monarchs sport a makeshift outfit as well this week due to a mixture of continental exploits and injury. We will wish our number 1 Sam well as he looks to qualify from the GP challenge at Vetlanda. Only the top 3 qualify and the field is fierce but our main men will go with the attitude he can beat anyone as surely will have taken confidence from his showings in the World Cup. Replacing Sam in both fixtures is Ludvig Lindgren. Newcastle's Swede has a patchy record at Armadale but has been on fine form recently and we will need this to continue. There's also a change at reserve where Dan is forced to sit out after being diagnosed with concussion after his crash at Newcastle last week. This is a massive blow to the Monarchs as Dan has been in the form of his life recently but our main concern is his well being and resting up is definitely his best option. Rob Shuttleworth deputises and will look to put himself in the PL shop window. Ryan rejoins the fray after missing the Newcastle match and hopefully another week will have allowed his foot to heal sufficiently.

So two tough matches with a patched up Monarchs side. 6 points is absolutely vital as we look to secure as high a finish in the league as we can to get a favourable draw for the playoffs. 30 heats of exciting PL speedway await kicking off at the earlier than usual time of 7pm.

Edinburgh Border Roofing Monarchs

1 Ludvig Lindgren

2 Ryan Fisher

3 Erik Riss

4 Mark Riss

5 Kevin Wolbert

6 Max Clegg

7 Rob Shuttleworth

Redcar SG Petch Bears

1 David Bellego

2 Tobias Busch

3 Hugh Skidmore

4 Jonas B Andersen

5 Lasse Bjerre

6 Jye Etheridge

7 Lee Payne

Plymouth Devils

1 Jack Holder

2 Stefan Nielsen

3 Sam Simota

4 Todd Kurtz

5 Kyle Newman

6 Steve Boxhall

7 Ellis Perks