WITCHES PULL CLEAR

NEWS Thursday 5th September 2013, 10:30pm

by Toby Lerone

  Edinburgh Monarchs

We’ve had a few table topping teams visiting us at Armadale this season and Ipswich will be added to the list on Friday night.

After their huge win against Sheffield on Thursday night at Foxhall Heath by 60 to 32 they are no less than four points clear at the top of the table and now seem certain to secure a top two position to gain one of the first picks in the play-off selection.

In the early part of the match it seemed that the Tigers would make a match of it as they were only four points down by heat seven despite losing Oliver Allen to injury before the conclusion of the first race and were further depleted when Simon lambert crashed out of the meeting in heat 7. The Tigers ended the meeting with just three riders.

The Witches arrive at Armadale with track expert Ashley Birks at number one and Kasper Lykke replacing non track expert Ritchie Hawkins at reserve. Lykke also guested for the Witches on Thursday evening but failed to score from three races.

Friday night comes just too early for Max Fricke who has not recovered from his dreadful heat 8 crash last Friday and will sit out the meeting. Bruising and lack of movement in his upper body means he is not capable of riding although he is improving daily and is receiving physiotherapy treatment to aid recovery. We are grateful to Henning Bager who has changed his travel plans to fly in from Denmark in time for the meeting.

There will be a collection on behalf of our injured rider, Mitchell Davey, on Friday. Uncle B and Ed the Monarch will have a collecting bucket at the gate on Friday night and you will also find collecting buckets in the Club Shop, Video Table and T Bar. Mitchell faces a lengthy spell on inactivity with his broken leg.

We will be announcing another initiative at Armadale on Friday evening in aid of our air fence fund. Ragbag will have a container in the stadium to collect unwanted clothes for recycling. If we can fill this a couple of times before the end of the season it should add a four figure sum to our air fence fund.