Edinburgh Monarchs v Sheffield Tigers

There was no shortage of interest as Edinburgh took their first league points of the year, but didn’t have things all their own way.

The Tigers only had three race winners and that was their downfall, but they certainly never gave up. The Scotwaste Monarchs opened up with a 5-1 after Derek Sneddon had successfully stalked Hugh Skidmore and passed him at the end of the heat, but the visiting reserves hit back with an extremely easy 5-1 in heat 2.

It was their advantage at reserve which enabled Sheffield to keep the match relatively close. Joe Haines deserves better luck than he has had, and Emiliano Sanchez is always popular, so it was good to see them going well.

There was no stopping Craig Cook and Andrew Tully though, both in superb form, and the remaining riders in their top five were all pretty impressive.

Sheffield were on a 5-1 for most of heat 5 until Theo Pijper got himself inside Skidmore on the final lap. The Aussie tried to come back round the outside but spun off, and he had an unlucky night overall.

He also fell on the first corner of heat 8, which looked a tough one on paper for Monarchs, but they took a 5-1 to go 12 points ahead.

That allowed Ricky Wells to take a TR and he did well to move the early leader Matthew Wethers over on the pits bend to take 6, with Joe Haines holding off Pijper and adding a point.

So Monarchs had to build up their lead again, starting with the ride of the night by Cook in heat 10. He was third on the first lap but rode a fast wide pits corner to pass his partner. A lap later he was on the back wheel of Chris Schramm, and turned hard to come through forcefully inside him. Excellent.

Schramm was involved in a different way in the next heat, as Micky Dyer lost his second place and then also lost third, and suffered quite a bit of damage to his machine as Schramm moved to block him regaining ground.

Heat 13 took five attempts, but once the home pair were away there was no catching them. The same riders contested heat 15, with an interesting battle between Cook and Wells in the early stages until Ricky lifted and crashed. He had ridden well though and played his part in a decent night’s action, in spite of a little bit of rather harsh derision from the crowd.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Sheffield Tigers

Edinburgh speedway fans will be hoping for a continuation of last week's sunshine speedway when they face a considerable challenge from a completely new-look 2012 Sheffield Tigers side who travel to Armadale this Friday (7.30) with high hopes of pulling off a surprise Premier League result.

Last year Sheffield incredibly used only seven different riders all season but when they came to the tapes for 2012 they surprisingly had a new team manager and only two riders retained from a campaign which saw them finish runners-up, if somewhat distantly, from Glasgow.

Monarchs high-flying No.1, Craig Cook, will be looking to continue his spectacular hot streak but he will have his work cut out against Sheffield's new top rider and long-time Berwick favourite, Josef Franc. Out of the blue in 2010, the Czech Republic rider, now 32, amazed everyone by winning the 2010 Scottish Open Championship.

Derek Sneddon looked very sharp on his very early return from injury and his gating skills will come in handy against the ever-improving young Australian in his third season with the Owlerton side, Hugh Skidmore, who is currently on an average fractionally under 6.00.

Theo Pijper is relishing his return to the Scotwaste Arena at No.3 after a five year gap and this week he lines up opposite the newest of the new faces in the Sheffield side, Chris Schramm from Essex who has been signed as an injury replacement for Klaus Jakobsen.

A thankfully rejuvenated Matthew Wethers is competing with the best again and he faces the Tigers captain, Richard Hall who has been brought back into the side after a year away at Leicester before he was released due to clashes with his long track racing and was picked up by Scunthorpe.

The battle for supremacy at No.5 will be crucial to the outcome this week. Andrew Tully doesn't drop too many points at Armadale but his opposite number, Ricky Wells, born in New Zealand and racing on an American licence, seems to be in the form of his life at the moment.

Hot prospect Micky Dyer is already living up to expectations in his first UK season and he will be looking to pick up points against a much more experienced reserve, Joe Haines from Bolton who is still only 20 but has ridden for clubs in all three leagues in his seven speedway seasons.

Charles Wright's bad luck never seems far away and this week he is unlucky enough to be lining up against one of the strongest reserves you could imagine in the former two times Argentinian and Italian Champion, Emiliano Sanchez who rode for Sheffield last year but was held back by injury.

So while they may not look the strongest side on paper, this Sheffield side have recovered from a shaky start to the season and are averaging around 40 points per match away from home, which makes them dangerous opponents in anybody's book.

Monarchs will be hoping that they can reproduce their recent super gating form and make the most of their advantage of racing on a much smaller track than the Tigers are used to. For their part, Sheffield will have at least three riders who can more than hold their own and keep the scores close.

If Monarchs can hold their nerve and not be pushed into mistakes, they should be well capable of coming out on top, but the scores are sure to be much closer than last week's unexpected demolition of Rye House and of course the dreaded T'R's are back in play this week.

Don't be in any doubt, this is a real test for Monarchs and they will get an enormous confidence boost if they can take full points from their first home league fixture. Anything less would be a major disappointment, so come along and get behind your favourites in the blue and gold.

Likely line-ups:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Craig Cook, Derek Sneddon, Theo Pijper, Matthew Wethers (capt.), Andrew Tully, Micky Dyer, Charles Wright.

SHEFFIELD TIGERS: Josef Franc, Hugh Skidmore, Chris Schramm, Richard Hall (capt.), Ricky Wells, Joe Haines, Emiliano Sanchez.