Academy make it a double

Probably the victory for the Stellar Monarchs Academy was more anticipated than the one for the Championship tesm. but the boys still had to do the job against a Steelers team which fought hard.

Only the home reserves Harris and Woods are normally in their side with all of the top five missing but their guests fought hard for their adopted team. The best guest on show though was Ben Trigger with a four-ride full score and full marks to Scott Wilson for getting him booked early to stand in for Dayle Wood.

Wilson said "It was a very professional performance from the boys tonight. We went into the meeting as favourites due to the Steelers injury issues but there was still a job to do and we took care of business.

"It's far from ideal that, by the nature of the league, we've gone five or six weeks without a meeting but hopefully this has created a bit of momentum for us to take into Leicester on Sunday.

"I'd like to thank Ben Trigger for his terrific performance standing in for Dayle tonight. I'd also like to thank the tremendous Monarchs supporters for staying on to support the Academy team. It was great to see them all cheering on the lads to victory."

With Trigger and Loftus winning the first two heats, the first break in the scoring came in heat 3 with McGurk winning and Loftus turning in a great ride to go round Spencer.

We held it steady over the next couple of heats and added a couple of points to the lead in heat 6.

Heat 8 took us to a 10 point lead and was a great ride by Mark Parker to back up Loftus under some pressure from Stene Pijper.

The last five heat winners were all Academy men finishing off with a 5-1 from Coles and McGurk over home guests Vale and Ingram, both impressive throughout.

The Monarchs support stayed to the end to cheer the Academy home in a double header excellently presented by the Scunthorpe promotion.

Double Duty At Scunny

Stellar Monarchs and Stellar Monarchs Academy are in double duty in Lincolnshire tonight as they take to track against Scunthorpe in the Championship first followed by the NDL, both sides looking for points to help their respective league pushes.

First up at 7pm it is the Monarchs versus the Scorpions with both sides at full strength.

It has not been the season that the Scorpions would have hoped for so far with their normally immaculate home form being tested with league defeats to Oxford and Poole and a super heat defeat to Glasgow so far.

With how tight the playoff chase is currently the Scorpions are not out of the hunt but they know any more home defeats could be terminal for these chances.

Familiarity has been the name of the game in team building for the Scorpions in recent years and this has continued this year with the big change at number one in former Monarch league winner Steve Worrall.

Heat leader back up comes from Jake Allen and a solid line-up beyond that with a real sting at reserve.

Luke Harrison and Zaine Kennedy form that potent reserve duo at the moment with Simon Lambert and Declan Kennedy who is enjoying a fine debut year in the UK having had spells at the bottom end also.

Conner Mountain completes the line-up and is always a consistent scorer at home.

The Eddie Wright Raceway has not been a happy hunting ground in the last few seasons for the Monarchs who know further away points will probably be required for a top four finish.

There has been promising signs throughout recently with solid form shown by the Blue and Gold in excellent home wins over Redcar and Plymouth.

One man who may be looking for more is Michael Palm Toft but on a former home track of many a year a big score tonight would go a long way to solving this and helping the Monarchs also.

Following the Championship encounter it is the Scunthorpe Steelers against Stellar Monarchs Academy with changes throughout both.

For the hosts it is almost all change with each of Luke Harrison, Jamie Etherington, Mickie Simpson, Nathan Ablitt and Vinnie Foord all missing.

Rider replacement operates for Harrison with Ashton Vale, Stene Pijper, Tom Spencer and Ryan Ingram deputising for the remaining.

For the Monarchs Academy Dayle Wood and Matt Marson miss out with Ben Trigger stepping in got Wood and rider replacement operating for Marson.

The rest is as planned with a busy night in store for Jordy Loftus who rides in both matches.

Sam McGurk and Mark Parker have both been in fine form so far this season and with he experience of Connor Coles in the mix also then an away win will be the target for Scott Wilson and his side.

The Academy are still well in the hunt for league glory this year with this match seeing them hit the mid point of their season a win taking them second in the table only two points behind table topping Oxford.

Live updates for both matches will be available o the Monarchs website with the Championship match being streamed live at https://tv.scunthorpe-speedway.com/