Deek says goodbye to the air fence Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

NO MORE DEEK

NEWS Thursday 30th October 2014, 10:52pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

By no means the least momentous event of last week’s incredible events was the announcement by the Scotwaste Monarchs’ captain Derek Sneddon that he had decided to bring his excellent career to a close.

The 32 year old has of course just captained the team to the Premier League treble, allowing him to confirm at the best possible time a decision he had pretty well made some time earlier.

Derek actually rode his 300th meeting for Monarchs on the Championship night. His first appearance in the team was back in 2001, and he had ridden for Glasgow and Newcastle as well by the time he returned in 2003. Although that was our first title-winning season, it wasn’t a good one for Derek as he broke his leg badly at Workington as early as March.

Due to the injury and considerable bad luck with rule changes, he appeared largely for the Dale Devils over the following years before returning to Monarchs in 2006.

2008 was a fantastic season for him as he captained our young team to its second title, only to be omitted the following season and ride again at Newcastle. There he was extremely popular, but in 2012 he was back at Armadale once more.

In 2013 he took over as captain again as we finished runners-up to Somerset, and of course we put that right in the season just finished.

He has scored just over 2,000 points for Monarchs and has been a great servant. He explained his reasons for bringing his career to an end:

“I’ve been struggling to fit everything in this year. I have my job, my daughter Sophie, and it’s been hard to find time to do the bikes as well.

“The sport has changed a lot in the time I’ve been in it. Nowadays almost every rider is a full time professional so you have to keep up with them.”

It should not be forgotten that in many years of racing, particularly at Newcastle and Edinburgh, Derek was one of the best Premier League number two’s around, Perhaps he rode Newcastle slightly better than Armadale.

He admitted “I never completely got the hang of Armadale, one week I could get 10 and the next week 2. But I felt for a long time I could hold my own at no. 2, even when I was up against top riders.

“More recently I’ve gone down to reserve and wasn’t always beating the other reserves, so that made me think that it was getting near time to stop.”

Derek certainly doesn’t want to sever his connections with Edinburgh Speedway. “I don’t know how I can continue to be involved but it has been too much a part of my life for too long to just disappear from the speedway scene. We’ll think about that in the time ahead.”

He will make his final appearance as the captain of the Scotwaste Monarchs at this Saturday’s celebration dinner dance at the Edinburgh Marriot Hotel, and that should be some night.