Final Meeting On Friday

NEWS Wednesday 19th October 2016, 1:02pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs finally reach the last match of the season against Glasgow Tigers this Friday after a problematic year in which the Friday weather has been dreadful on a regular basis, topped off by the floodlight failure which caused another postponement a fortnight ago.

The knock-on effect of that is that it is an unusual lineup of Monarchs which will face title contenders Glasgow on Friday, trying to defend the 100% home league record which Monarchs still have. Somerset and Newcastle are the only teams to have completed an unbeaten home league programme.

Teams for the Premier League Match at Armadale on Friday 21st October (start time 7.30pm, gates open 6.30pm), are:

BORDER ROOFING MONARCHS: Steve Worrall, rider replacement for Ryan Fisher, Erik Riss, Mark Riss, Kevin Wolbert, Max Clegg, Ben Basford.

GLASGOW ALLIED VEHICLES TIGERS: Richie Worrall, Nike Lunna, Aaron Summers (capt.), Rene Bach, Richard Lawson, Fernando Garcia, Danny Ayres.

THANKS TO THE FANS: As we were in the process of doing when the last meeting was called off, we will be Thanking the Fans on Friday. A leaflet was handed out at the last meeting, and supporters can join us in a glass of champagne in the bar after the meeting.

OUR TEAM: Sam Masters will be riding in the Australian Grand Prix on Saturday and so regrettably can’t be at Armadale on Friday. He will be replaced by 2014 Monarchs’ title winner Steve Worrall, now top man at Newcastle.

Ryan Fisher had booked to return home to his family two days after what should have been our last meeting, so rider replacement will apply for him. Our initial intention had been to find a guest for Ryan and use r/r for Sam, but this hasn’t proved to be possible.

Dan Bewley will still be missing due to his injuries sustained in August, and in any case he has broken his collar bone while mountain biking! Ben Hopwood had been booked to stand in after recent satisfactory displays for us, but he was injured on Monday at Kent, so our guest at no. 7 will now be Cradley’s Ben Basford.

PREMIER LEAGUE: Friday’s match is the 156th and last in this year’s Premier League. The penultimate match was at Workington on 1st October. The league positions will not be affected – Glasgow will finish second and Edinburgh fourth.

There will be no new programme issued on Friday, if you bring along the one you bought last time you will be given an updated race card.

FALCONS ON PARADE: We will have as our guests on Friday the Edinburgh Falcons who have this summer won the Northern Premier Cycle Speedway League, the first Scottish side to win anything of this magnitude for almost forty years.

FULL STRENGTH TIGERS: Unlike our situation of shedding riders, Glasgow would have been missing Lunna, Summers and Garcia on 7th October but now have all these men back in their side!

Their team has come on strongly recently and is still in the running for both the Premier League and the Knockout Cup, though they were beaten by Somerset in the League Cup Final.

Whilst they might have other things on their mind, they can hardly fail to see Friday as a chance to make a small dent in our overall 183 to 144 advantage in the fixtures between the sides.

FANS' TRUST RAFFLE: The Monarchs' Fans Trust, who have been such a fantastic support to the club this season are staging a raffle with a £500 first prize to be drawn in November. If you want to help by selling some tickets, books will be available to sell from the Gazebo from 6.30pm till tapes up and then in the bar after the meeting.

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