Edinburgh Monarchs v Wolverhampton Wolves

For once the Scotwaste Monarchs failed to do themselves justice as they came up against the formidable oppositioin of the Elite League Wolves.

Wolves will be staying in the Elite League, unless they fail to turn up at their home track on Monday, and indeed they turned in a very good show in difficult conditions at Armadale.

Their top man was Jesper B Monberg, a class rider who hasn't been having a great time of it. He looked back to his best and was beaten only by Monarchs' star man Ryan Fisher.

David Howe and Freddie Lindgren were also very good, and add James Grieves and Nikolai Klindt as well, too many guns for a Monarchs' team which did not rise to the occasion.

The only home rider to enhance his reputation was Ryan Fisher, who should have scored 20 but for coming off when leading in his TR race.

He was brilliant, even managing to pass Freddie Lindgren in heat 5 with a bold outside move, and he dropped his only point to David Howe in another good heat, number 8, when Howe managed to come from the back in style.

Chris Schramm battled hard at reserve, winning heat 2, and Andrew Tully came good in heat 14, one of a series of heats in which riders were allowed to get away with fliers at the gate.

For Matthew Wethers and Aaron Summers it was a night to forget, and a slight improvement in William Lawson's form still left him well short of his early season brilliance.

With the score at 25-29 after heat 9 we were doing OK, but we then lost four successive 5-1s, the Wolves being assisted by falls for Lawson on the last bend of heat 10 when second, and Fisher leading on his TR in heat 12.

It looked as though Wolves eased off a bit over the final two heats and other than the trophy presentation, this was not a match to go down in the list of good Monarchs showings for 2008.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Ryan Fisher.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Wolverhampton Wolves

The penultimate match at Armadale sees the Monarchs take on Elite League Wolverhampton in the first ever promotion play-offs. Will it provide the biggest shock of the season or will it turn out to be the mismatch of the season?

What a task the Edinburgh side have. Only one of the Wolves? side, James Grieves, currently rides in the Premier League on an 8.75 average for Redcar and is a well known Armadale specialist. For this match he comes into the Wolverhampton team as a second string for the injured Morton Risager!

One member of the Wolves team, Frederick Lindgren, would be ineligible to ride in the Premier League because his Elite League average is too high while all of the team are eligible to take a Rider Replacement ride for the injured Niels Kristian Iversen another who would not have been eligible to ride in the Premier League.

David Howe, well known to Armadale fans as a result of his past performances in the Scottish Open, comes into the Wolves side as a second string. His current average would equate in PL terms to 10.88 which would make him one of the top riders in the league while Jesper B Monberg (formerly Jensen) is the third Wolverhampton heat leader with an average in PL terms of 10.08!

The two reserves should be no slouches either. Ludvig Lindgren is relatively unknown and has never ridden at Armadale while Nicolai Klindt?s PL average, should he move down, would currently be 9.04.

Looking at these statistics suggests that the Monarchs are in for a very hard time of it even to contain this side let alone beat it. Of course matches aren?t won by looking at figures on paper but by results on track. However with such overwhelming strength it?s hard to see how any Premier League team could live against a team such as this even if it did finish bottom of the Elite League.

To make matters worse for Edinburgh once again they have to use Rider Replacement for Thomas H Jonasson and patch up the side with a reserve to replace Derek Sneddon. The team are used to the R/R scenario but replacing Derek Sneddon is a different matter. Edinburgh may find that there is simply no-one even remotely suitable, willing, able and uninjured amongst potential candidates to fill the gap in the team under the criteria for guests for the higher scoring reserve in PL teams.

However there are no rules for this competition as far as we know. (If there are can someone explain where they?re set out for us to see). It seems that assumptions have been made that the EL side will go with EL rules while the PL side will go with PL rules. This leaves the tie ridiculously biased in favour of the EL side. For example when an Elite League side looks for a guest they can use a rider with an average 10% higher than the rider he replaces! When an Elite League second string needs replacing they can bring in a PL rider with an average twice as high since it gets halved for EL purposes. Hence James Grieves replaces Morten Risager. And so it goes on.

If those who thought up this competition for promotion/relegation had taken the time and trouble to consider the repercussions which might be thrown up by running to two different sets of rules then they might have come up with some compromises to make the match a bit more of an even playing field. As it is, it is bordering on a fiasco.

This is not to say that Edinburgh can?t give an excellent account of themselves and the riders have certainly nothing to lose. It will take a remarkable performance for the Monarchs to run the Wolves close but the plain truth of the matter is that they are likely to lose by at least a few points at home and be in danger of being overwhelmed away when Lewis Bridger appears in the Wolverhampton team to replace Morten Risager who has a lower average than him!

Here?s hoping that the racing is exciting and that the Monarchs? fans have plenty to cheer about before heading off down to Wolverhampton on Monday.

The teams for Friday night?s match are:

Edinburgh: William Lawson, Rider Replacement for Thomas H Jonasson, Ryan Fisher, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Guest for Derek Sneddon, Aaron Summers.

Wolverhampton: Fredrick Lindgren, David Howe, Rider Replacement for Niels Kristian Iversen, James Grieves, Jesper B Monberg, Ludvig Lindgren, Nicolai Klindt.