Great show by the Monarchs with Josh to the fore

NEWS Friday 6th September 2024, 11:23pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The final home Championship match of the season for the Stellar Monarchs was described as a "Must Win" fixture for the team, and win they did with a very good performance, defeating Glasgow 49-41, just missing the aggregate bonus but handing a golden opportunity to Workington to make the Playoffs if they win their home match tomorrow.

No. 1 Josh Pickering scored 14 but was annoyed to drop a point. He highlighted a controversial stoppage in the last race when Monarchs had gated on a 5-1. "There was nothing wrong with Dan's start at all, we were away. I wanted to go out on a high with a 15 point maximum as well as beating Glasgow, so it was a disappointing last race but in the end of the day we still got the job done and it was a good win for the team."

Monarchs built up a 10-point lead by heat 8 and held that for a couple of heats, but heats 11 and 12 went Tigers' way before advantages in heats 13 and 14 ensured the win.

Pickering led from the front as usual, dropping just that single point, and any fears that the absence of injured men Justin Sedgmen and Kye Thomson might be a problem were allayed by good guest displays by the Thompson twins Dan and Joe, with 15 points between them.

Paco Castagna stepped up to win the match clinching heat 14, a harum-scarum battle with James Pearson, and there were very good points from Connor Coles at reserve.

There was bad luck for Lasse Fredriksen who had paid six from his first three, but was excluded attempting a pass in heat 12 when it seemed that Matic Ivacic had virtually stopped in front of him.

For Tigers, Chris Harris was brilliant and gave his all, featuring in two especially good heats – heat 15 of course, passing and re-passing with Josh Pickering, and heat 11 when he engineered an excellent pass on Dan Thompson. Anders Rowe was very good and there were race wins for guest Barker and reserve Ivacic. However 11 last places were too much and unless Plymouth can avoid defeat at Workington tomorrow, Tigers' Playoff hopes will be gone.

It was important to Edinburgh and their fans that they did not finish on a defeat and they've done that, lifting themselves to seventh place in the table unless Plymouth get something tomorrow.

They will be looking for a new number one for next season though as the brilliant Pickering revealed that, much as he loves the club and the fans, he must seize his chance to move up the speedway ladder having won a contract with Leszno in Poland next year.

This was not unexpected though he did say "If I do ride in the Championship again in future, it won't be anywhere else than Edinburgh."

Now it's over to the Monarchs Academy for the final two Armadale Fridays of the 2024 season (barring an admittedly unlikely 10-point win at Scunthorpe in the BSN Semi!)

Full Result Details