SOMERSET AT THE DOUBLE

NEWS Sunday 5th May 2013, 1:00pm

by Toby Lerone

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We’ll have to be looking our very best on Tuesday 11th June as we’ve been asked to bring forward our league visit to Somerset to that day so that Sky can televise the match.

It’s the first time we’ve been on television since 24th August 2009 so we’ve had a long wait to show the British public just how good we are. Hopefully we’ll manage to put on a show for the cameras even although our Oak Tree Arena track expert, Matthew Wethers, is no longer with us.

Of course we are delighted to get the chance to be in front of the cameras again but there is always a down side to such affairs and on this occasion it means that the only two day away trip we had line up has now been split to two one day trips.

And 11th June isn’t the only trip we have lined up to Somerset in the next few weeks as it has been confirmed that we have qualified for the Premier League pairs at the same track on 31st May. In fact we have qualified as the second highest Pair based on May averages.

We’re in Group B and are up against Workington, Plymouth, Sheffield and Leicester. We need to finish first or second to qualify for the Semis and after that anything can happen. The other group have Somerset, Glasgow, Ipswich, Scunthorpe and Berwick as the contenders.

Our record in the Pairs is not great and, in due course, we will select the riders to represent us from Craig Cook, Theo Pijper and Claus Vissing.

Looking back to Friday night there is no doubt that we made the correct decision to have an early call off. The rain didn’t stop and local weather statistics show that 16.8mm of rain fell last week, 13mm, about half an inch, of that fell on Friday. Needless to say, not a drop fell on Saturday.