Monarchs Routed At Scunthorpe

The Stellar Monarchs put in an abject display going down 59-31 at Scunthorpe on Sunday in the first of their playoff group matches.

Routinely beaten from the start and with only Josh Pickering able to make any consistent challenge it was a chastening afternoon with Pickering saying after.

"It was a quick run meeting as always at Scunthorpe and I didn't really know what the score was early on as I was changing things but it wasn't good enough, we got going a little in the last few heats but as I said it wasn't good enough."

As mentioned, the home men dominated from the off taking heat advantages in each of the first six heats and with the score already 27-9 at this point all thoughts had turned to damage limitation rather than a positive result.

The hosts were in no mood to relent though and having taken a point at Poole on Wednesday they now find themselves in pole position to progress.

It would take until heat 12 for the Monarchs to take the checkered flag as Pickering in as a tactical substitute made the start to head home Simon Lambert.

Heat 13 was another Pickering classic as left for dead at the start he wound it on for all four laps blasting round both Scorpions to take the win.

If heat 13 was good, then heat 15 was even better with Pickering at it again. Perhaps benefitting from a little bit of leniency from referee Phil Griffin (although the Scorpions had benefitted from similar earlier in the meeting) Pickering hit the front but home number one Ryan Douglas was not ready to accept defeat charging his way into the lead, the pair would then pass and re-pass on almost every corner until the Monarchs captain was able to make the lead stick on the final lap.

Unfortunately, though despite Pickering's brilliance back-up was sporadic at best, non-existent at worst as no other Monarch would take a heat win or top the five-point mark, the hosts dominance shown by the fact they ran only a pair of lasts all night to go with their 13 heat wins.

So, a bad day at the office for the Monarchs and pride will need to be restored when the sides meet again at Armadale on Friday night.

Scunthorpe 59: Douglas 12+1, Mountain 7+1, Lambert 7+2, Allen 12, Palm-Toft 12+1, Ablitt 3, Kemp 6+1

Stellar Monarchs 31: Sedgmen 4, Fredriksen 1, Thomson 2+1, Castagna 5, Pickering 15, Wood 0, Borke 4

Playoffs Start Now

It is take two for the start of the Stellar Monarchs playoff campaign as they head to Scunthorpe on Sunday looking to start their campaign on a high.

With the change in structure for the playoffs this year this will be the first of four playoff matches for the Monarchs, so every point is crucial with not just the result on the day, but the aggregate bonus point vital.

The home men started their campaign of in fine style with a battling draw at Poole last Wednesday while they then lost the 'superheat' the match point gained still makes them early favourites to top the group.

This is based on their strong home record also where the Eddie Wright Raceway has been turned into a bit of a fortress and the Monarchs will hope for better than the 51-39 defeat suffered back in July.

There are a couple of changes to the side that went down by 12 that day with Craig Cook absent and being replaced by Justin Sedgmen and Paco Castagna who missed out now fully back into the swing of things after that broken arm.

Dayle Wood also returns to the side after a recent absence to take his place at reserve.

The Scorpions are as programmed with the bulk of the scoring expected from dominant number one Ryan Douglas who is having probably his finest year on British soil and went through the card the last time the teams met. Others having strong years include captain Simon Lambert and Drew Kemp appears to be in fine form at reserve also so there is no weak link in the Scorpions septet.

Tape-up is at 5pm with live streaming available from https://tv.scunthorpe-speedway.com/ with live updates also available on the Monarchs website.

Scunthorpe: Ryan Douglas, Connor Mountain, Simon Lambert, Jake Allen, Michael Palm Toft, Nathan Ablitt, Drew Kemp

Stellar Monarchs: Justin Sedgmen, Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Josh Pickering, Dayle Wood, Bastian Borke