Edinburgh Monarchs v Leicester Lions

This match was much closer than the final score suggests, with the home team very much indebted to their top two.

Kevin Wolbert and Andrew Tully were streets ahead of everyone, and clinched the three match points with their 5-1 in the final heat.

The top visiting riders Kauko Nieminen and Magnus Karlsson only won one race between them, though Nieminen?s heats against Tully and Craig Cook were amongst the best races.

The most disappointing aspect of the evening was the track, a depressingly shiny surface after a day of good weather betraying over-watering which had some of the riders struggling.

There was still some good action but Craig Cook and Kyle Howarth especially found themselves below par. The first four races were shared, two 5-1s each, and Cook conceded a second 1-5 in heat 7 which gave the Lions a 2-point lead.

The bonus for the home team was an improved performance from Kalle Katajisto, much closer to his best form, and he helped to turn things round.

There were two contentious exclusions over the first half of the match. The slippery surface caused some waggling back-ends, one such by Matthew Wethers in heat 5. Although Viktor Bergstrom was well behind and had a choice of lines, he still managed to head for Wethers and clip him as he the home captain regained control.

Wethers was excluded and a heat advantage was lost. If this was debatable, then three heats later a first bend waggle by Jason Garrity which very slightly hampered Kyle Howarth was also very harshly rated an excludable offence. It looked like an attempt to even things up.

From that point Monarchs started to perform better, and they pulled out a 10-point lead by heat 13. Katajisto played a big part and Cook deserves credit for fighting back after two terrible rides to take a win in heat 11 and a fighting third in heat 13 after a very bad start.

Garrity was seriously under-used by Leicester on his Armadale debut. He started with two paid wins, then had that unlucky heat 8 exclusion, and never reappeared until heat 14 when he was chosen for the TR and gained six points. What might have happened had he been given another couple of heats in the right place?

Edinburgh Monarchs v Leicester Lions

There's a real international flavour to the Leicester Lions who pay their second Premier League visit of the season to Armadale on Friday (7.30 start) with only one British rider in their much changed septet in contrast to four in Edinburgh's line-up.

Opposing the high flying Kevin Wolbert who seems to have found a real belief in his own abilities at last is the formidable former Workington star Kauko Nieminen. The replacement for Sergey Darkin also has extensive top flight experience with Lakeside. This is a mouthwatering contest in its own right.

Kauko may have a rare chance to converse in his native Finnish if he is on speaking terms with Monarchs No.2 Kalle Katajisto. Kalle lines up opposite 24-year-old Swedish rider Victor Bergstrom, a replacement for Charles Wright, who has previously spent most of his time in UK speedway with Scunthorpe.

Andrew Tully faces the Russian rider who didn't make it to Armadale earlier in the year, 29-year-old Ilya Bondarenko who is the nephew of a multiple champion ice speedway rider. Ilya has been racing since the age of 15 but mostly for Togliatti and other East European teams.

Skipper Matthew Wethers' opposite number is 30-year-old Henning Bager from Denmark who has been shuffled around several clubs in both the Premier and Elite Leagues in his time due to teams juggling their averages. He was brought in to fill the hole left by Richard Sweetman's 'break' from the sport.

Life continues to be tough for Craig Cook who lines up opposite one of the most popular ex-Monarchs, Magnus Karlsson. The Swedish rider, now 29, has plenty of top-flight experience with Wolves but looked to have priced himself out of UK speedway until he was signed by the Lions to replace Richard Hall.

Adam McKinna makes it two Scots in the Edinburgh line-up and is paired against 24-year-old Danish rider Jan Graversen who was signed on a full transfer by the Lions, having been another who has been on the merry-go-round of five clubs in three seasons, and who is one of the few Lions to have kept his place.

A tremendous tussle is in prospect at No. 7 where the top two National League riders line up against each other. Last week's Monarch of the Match, Kyle Howarth faces a personal battle with Belle Vue asset Jason Garrity from Manchester who has won British tiles at both U-15 and U-19 levels.

So it's a totally different Leicester side than the one which sensationally beat Edinburgh in April, and one which looks very experienced and much stronger on paper. Edinburgh may have twice as many league points as the visitors, but that doesn't reflect how closely matched these sides now are.

Edinburgh will still consider theirs is a falsely low league position, but another loss to the Lions would firmly consign them to the lower half of the table, something which few would have predicted at the start of the season. If you love your speedway, this looks like another superb contest in the making. Don't miss it!

Likely line-ups:

EDINBURGH SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Kevin Wolbert, Kalle Katajisto, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers (capt.), Craig Cook, Adam McKinna (guest), Kyle Howarth.

LEICESTER BREEDON AGGREGATES LIONS: Kauko Nieminen, Viktor Bergstrom, Ilya Bondarenko, Henning Bager, Magnus Karlsson (capt.), Jan Graversen, Jason Garrity.