Can We Make It 5?

PREVIEW Sunday 23rd April 2017, 9:30am

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs head south tomorrow looking to make it 5 out of 5 and cement their place at the top of the SGB Championship as we visit the Eddie Wright Raceway to take on the Scunthorpe Scorpions.

The Scorpions have made an indifferent start to their campaign having lost 6 of their 7 fixtures so far (with a match at Berwick tonight to come.) The lone victory for the Scorpions came at home against Glasgow though so this shows what they can do on their day.

The Monarchs have an excellent recent record in Lincolnshire having recorded victories in each of the last 3 seasons and our matches there are always looked forward to due to the consistently excellent speedway that is on offer.

The Scorpions have been forced into one change already with another potentially pending. Fritz Wallner is still missing having broken his wrist in his heat 2 crash at Armadale a few weeks ago and Redcar’s Richard Hall will deputise. Rob Godfrey’s men are also waiting on the fitness of Josh Auty who crashed out of the defeat at home to the Bears last Monday. Auty missed out on Leicester’s match on Friday sits out the visit to Berwick tonight and a decision will be made tomorrow morning regarding if he will line up against the Monarchs. Should Auty not be able to take his place then rider replacement will operate with all of the home men able to take an extra ride.

Remarkably despite our recent record at the Eddie Wright Raceway none of our riders would ever claim it as one of their favourite tracks with a couple openly admitting to not liking it at all. In saying that these same riders all seem to score well. The main man in our victory last year was Erik who raced to a double digit return with strong backup from Sam, Max and Mitch. If they can all repeat their performances from last year with Mark weighing in as he has everywhere so far and Ricky carrying on his excellent early season form we may well be in with a good chance of bringing more points north. Josh is also no stranger to the track having raced in a preseason practice individual match recording no less than a 15 point maximum albeit against amateur opposition.

A couple of our guys will be busy tonight before tomorrow with Ricky making his Rye House debut at home to Poole and Mitchell lining up for Stoke at home to Belle Vue and we will be keeping an eye on these to make sure man and machine come through raring to go.

Teams for tomorrow tapes up 5.30pm

Scunthorpe Henderson Insurance Scorpions

1 Ryan Douglas, 2 Carl Wilkinson, 3 Lewis Kerr, 4 Michael Palm Toft, 5 Josh Auty or R/R, 6 Richard Hall, 7 Josh Bailey

Parsons Peebles Monarchs

1 Sam Masters, 2 Josh Pickering, 3 Erik Riss, 4 Max Clegg, 5 Ricky Wells, 6 Mark Riss, 7 Mitchell Davey

Full Result Details