Two Ties away from a Trophy

NEWS Thursday 22nd August 2024, 10:11am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Stellar Monarchs switch their attentions from the Championship campaign this Friday to compete against Scunthorpe Scorpions in the semi-final of the BSN Series, a place in the final up for grabs. The first leg is at Armadale this Friday (7:30pm start).

Good news for Monarchs is that Justin Sedgmen is ready to ride after a mid-week tryout, so the team will be at full strength (as are Scunthorpe). With their Championship ambitions limited to getting off the bottom Monarchs will be fully focussed on gaining a good advantage to take to Scunthorpe on 6th September – and of course Monarchs did take the aggregate bonus over Scunthorpe in the Championship matches between the teams.

Scunthorpe are a solid side without any stand-out stars but they are notably strong at their own circuit, where Monarchs' total of 39 is the second best visiting score in the Championship this year (after Poole's 42).

Team manager Alex Harkess agrees, saying "We have to view the first leg as exactly what happened in the league, they are coming to us first and we need to open up a big lead. We know it is difficult at their place, although we did very well down there after a very bad start. The way we went in the second half of that meeting would give you confidence in what we might do, but the bottom line is we must dominate the first fixture, and open up a lead which gives us the confidence to go there and hold it.

"If our reserves can outscore theirs reasonably well than I believe the others will do enough for us. I don't want us to concede a 5-1 in heat 2, we want something positive."

Monarchs won the Scottish section of the BSN Series while Scunthorpe were best runners up riding in the Northern section. The other semi-final is Poole v Workington.

Friday's match will be Live Streamed for those who cannot attend, details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk.

FRIDAY'S MATCH:

Friday 23rd August: Edinburgh Monarchs v Scunthorpe Scorpions (BSN Series semi-final 1st leg), Armadale, 7:30pm

STELLAR MONARCHS: Josh Pickering, Kye Thomson, Lasse Fredriksen, Paco Castagna (Capt.), Justin Sedgmen, Max James, Connor Coles.

ELLIE ROSE SCORPIONS: Michael Palm Toft, Connor Mountain, Simon Lambert (Capt.), Jake Allen, Kyle Howarth, Nathan Ablitt, Luke Harrison.

Full Result Details