Harkess: I want a good win

PREVIEW Thursday 2nd September 2021, 12:27pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The What the Fork Monarchs have a very important match this Friday against Birmingham as several teams battle for Playoff places. The Monarchs and the Brummies are both in contention and want the points.

Things have not been going Monarchs' way recently, especially with the continuing absence of Richie Worrall following his crash on 13th August in which he suffered a cracked finger. It had been organised that Richard Lawson would guest this week but on Thursday he pulled out for reasons that the club accept.

So it will be rider replacement once again with the lack of other suitable guests. Birmingham also use rider replacement for Valentin Grobauer who is again missing, as he was on their recent abandoned KO Cup visit.

Monarchs of course track their two new signings, 19 year olds Anders Rowe and Drew Kemp, who are expected to strengthen the bottom end of the team, though it is reasonable to suppose they will need time to find their feet in new surroundings. Kemp commented "I felt I learnt a lot riding Armadale as a guest last week and it's a track that I can definitely improve on. It's good to go to a team which could win something this year and I hope I can add something to the team."

Brummies' top two of Erik Riss (former Monarchs captain) and Chris Harris need no introduction, and they have a solid batch of backup riders.

Team manager Alex Harkess says "If we get a good contribution from everyone we will be fine. I want a good win, we were winning comfortably when Birmingham were here in the cup and I think we were on our way to a big win."

As with all Armadale matches this season Friday's match will be Live Streamed, however the stream will be available only to those outwith a 25 mile radius of the track. Anyone within that limit but unable to attend should email us here.

THIS WEEK'S MEETING:

Friday 3rd September: Edinburgh What the Fork Monarchs v Birmingham (Championship), Armadale, 7:30pm

WHAT THE FORK MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), Anders Rowe, Kye Thomson, Josh Pickering, Rider replacement for Richie Worrall, Drew Kemp, Nathan Greaves.

EDWARDS PLUMBING BRUMMIES: Chris Harris (capt.), rider replacement for Valentin Grobauer, James Shanes, Ashley Morris, Erik Riss, Paco Castagna, Jack Thomas.

Full Result Details