Title Partner
NEWS Tuesday 1st July 2008, 5:39pm
Edinburgh Monarchs
The Scotwaste Monarchs have had their mid-season break in the form of the British GP weekend and are now preparing to race Stoke home and away on Friday and Saturday in Premier League fixtures.
Monarchs will be at full strength for the matches and will be hoping that an impressive record over the last decade at Stoke is maintained as they attempt to put pressure on their fellow contenders for leadership of the League. Potters have still to select a guest replacement for injured no. 1 Lee Complin on Friday.
TEAMS FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 4th JULY (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:
SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: William Lawson, Thomas H Jonasson, Andrew Tully, Ryan Fisher, Matthew Wethers, Derek Sneddon (captain), Aaron Summers.
STOKE EASY RIDER POTTERS: Guest replacement for Lee Complin, Mark Burrows, Ben Barker (captain), Klaus Jakobsen, Andrew Moore, Barrie Evans, Jesper Kristiansen.
LEAGUE PROGRESS: As well as the GP weekend Monarchs have been busy on Premier Trophy business, defeating Reading in the semi-final and qualifying to meet Birmingham in the final (dates still to be arranged).
Nevertheless they are still in third spot even though they have raced five fewer matches than Workington who are second.
Monarchs could take over second spot this weekend as they resume their league programme.
MONARCHS IN DEMAND: Hot on the heels of Andrew Tully's Polish debut for Rawicz recently comes a call-up for William Lawson to race in Sweden for the famous Vargarna team.
William will race for them away to Griparna (Nykoping) on Thursday in the Swedish Allsvenskan League. He replaces Vargarna captain Joe Screen who is injured, and will use Screen's machinery as well.
TROPHY SEMI: Monarchs successfully made it through to the Premier Trophy Final by beating Reading 100-80 on aggregate in the semi-final.
They went down by just 44-46 in the second leg in Berkshire last week after winning by 22 points at Armadale.
PREMIER PAIRS: William Lawson and Matthew Wethers represented Monarchs in the Premier Pairs but came fourth in their qualifying group.
Wethers scored 12 and Lawson 3 with William struggling to find his usual speed on the fast Somerset circuit.
HOSPITALITY ON FRIDAY: The George Hunter Memorial Lounge this Friday will be utilised by a group of invited guests rather than the usual match sponsors.
BARKER WILL BE DANGER MAN: 20 year old Ben Barker has just taken over the captaincy of the Potters in his second season with the club.
He is undoubtedly one of GB's best young prospects, and apparently is proving an excellent captain also.
Regrettably his fellow thrillmaker Lee Complin is out of action following bad injuries sustained in a car crash. Stoke have not yet arranged the guest for Complin but have a high average to play with.
They will also be tracking Mark ?Buzz? Burrows, who was a Monarch as long ago as 1985-6 and who has been a success this season at the age of 43. He rode well in Monarchs' Diamond Jubilee meeting.
Danish riders Klaus Jakobsen and Jesper Kristiansen will be making their Armadale debuts, with Kristiansen having been the more successful so far this season.
LAST MEETING: Monarchs beat Sheffield 56-33 on a track made difficult by pre-meeting rain in the last Armadale meeting on 20th June. Top man was William Lawson who was untroubled in winning all of his five reaces.
NEXT MEETING: The visitors to Armadale on Friday 11th July will be the current league champions the Rye House Rockets. This means that top English prospect Tai Woffinden returns having impressed greatly on his visits last season.
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Bathgate Road
Armadale
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