Bandits Looking For Revenge

NEWS Wednesday 12th April 2017, 3:49pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs look to build on an excellent opening weekend of the season against visiting Berwick Bandits at Armadale this Friday.

SMARTING BANDITS

Berwick will travel the short distance up the A1 on the hunt for revenge this Friday after being overturned by the Parsons Peebles Monarchs 48-42 on their own turf last Saturday evening. It was a tight affair with the Monarchs top end strength proving key as they took the decisive points in the latter stages of the match.

This was the Bandits 4th defeat in 6 matches and throwing in a home draw at Newcastle it has not been the best of starts for the Borderers.

HISTORY ON MONARCHS SIDE

The Bandits are traditionally not the strongest visitors to Armadale but this does not mean they can be discounted. The Monarchs only need to look back to their first match of last season to the last time the Bandits were victorious in West Lothian.

While this year’s septet has a decidedly different look to it there are still enough handy Armadale performers in the Berwick line-up to cause the Monarchs problems and they will be taking nothing for granted.

BRIDGER THE STAR ATTRACTION

Star man for the Bandits is new number 1 Lewis Bridger. Bridger was seen as a coup for the new Berwick promotion and with his small track pedigree his battles against the Monarchs top men should be a sight to behold.

SUCCESSFUL START TO THE SEASON

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs made an encouraging start to their SGB Championship campaign last weekend as they took 6 out of a possible 7 points from two fixtures and while co promoter Alex Harkess was happy with this he felt his men were unlucky not to get all 7 ‘We did what was required last Friday, it was comfortable after the 5-1 in heat 2 and then nullifying their tactical ride which was probably Scunthorpe’s last throw of the dice.’

‘The next day we had enough people producing at Berwick to make all the difference and to come away with an away win at the first opportunity was excellent. I thought the referee was wrong in not allowing us a re-run in heat 15. A Berwick rider had fallen off by himself, and we were denied the opportunity of trying to gain the point required to take all 4 match points.’

Teams for the SGB Championship match at Armadale on Friday 14th April (start time 7:30pm, gates open 6:30pm), are:

PARSONS PEEBLES MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), Josh Pickering, Erik Riss, Max Clegg, Ricky Wells, Mark Riss, Mitchell Davey.

BERWICK OLYMPUS MARQUEES BANDITS: Lewis Bridger, Dimitri Berge, Kevin Doolan, Liam Carr, Claus Vissing, Dany Gappmaier, Ryan Blacklock

RESHUFFLED BANDITS:

Berwick have re-jigged their riding order in the hope that it improves their fortunes. Young Frenchman moves to number 2 with ex-Monarch Claus Vissing taking the second heat leader role at 5. This leaves the mixture of experienced Kevin Doolan and local youngster Liam Carr in the engine room.

All eyes will be on the two Armadale debutants at opposite ends of the team in number 1 Lewis Bridger who has already shown his talent with some exciting wins so far this season and Dany Gappmaier who the Bandits are hoping will be a trump card at the bottom end of the line-up.

LAST MEETING:

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs opened their SGB Championship campaign with a comfortable 54-36 victory over Scunthorpe. Newcomer Ricky Wells was star of the show with a paid maximum and he was well backed up by the rest of the team particularly Sam Masters who was only headed by an opposition rider once and Mark Riss who weighed in with 11 form reserve.

NEXT MEETING:

On Friday 21st April the Parsons Peebles Monarchs face off against the Redcar Bears in Championship action. The Bears are another under new management and have put together a young and exciting line-up featuring the likes of Jason Garrity and ex-Monarch Charles Wright