The Narrowest Win

On a night when so much happened and the Border Roofing Monarchs had so many problems, they finally scraped home to a 45-44 victory when Sam Masters held second place in heat 15, the only point he dropped all night.

No rider likes to be left with a last heat decider, but if you had to choose anyone for the job it would be Sam Masters. Rye House were good and earned their point, but so much had gone wrong it was quite a miracle that the Monarchs held on for the victory.

The biggest problem of all was the heat 3 pileup when Ryan Fisher and Erik Riss tangled up and raced hard into the fence, hitting it head on. Both riders wrecked their bikes and had to change machines, and in Ryan's case he was already struggling after his favoured engine hadn't arrived from the tuners! This heat 3 had the further problem that there was some quite heavy rain and a break of about 30 minutes was taken while it cleared.

Neither Fisher nor Erik Riss was at their best thereafter though wins in heat 12 and 14 were vital. But as well as these problems, Kevin Wolbert had to jump on Sam Masters' machine for heat 4 and promptly stopped on that, and on top of that Max Clegg's excellent performance ended with a lost chain at the start of heat 14 when most people had him marked down as likely to clinch the victory in that race.

Captain Masters did so much to ensure victory. He beat the brilliant Edward Kennett in heats 1 and 13, and eventually secured the crucial second in heat 15. This heat saw the second big pileup of the night with everyone hammering into the fence on the first corner, thankfully with no-one injured.

Our reserves were again excellent, and their scores (Max 8+2 and Dan 6+1) actually didn't do them justice. They are going to be crucial contributors over the coming weeks.

Kevin Wolbert had his worst match of the season though he still won heat 7, a vital 5-1, and got a crucial point ahead of Stuart Robson in heat 13. The winning point, you could say. Kevin rode his second machine after that initial stoppage on Sam's bike.

Fisher and Erik Riss struggled, but as stated earlier they are not quitters and the wins by Erik (heat 12) and Ryan (heat 14) ensured that we maintained a 3-point lead going into the final race.

For the second home match running Mark Riss had a nightmare, and obviously there are certain track conditions he can't yet cope with.

Top PL average man Kennett was a joy to watch with his brilliant control on what was a tricky surface. There were those who expressed displeasure as he pushed under Fisher to win heat 5, but Fisher certainly wasn't complaining.

Stuart Robson and Cameron Heeps also had very good meetings as did Rob Branford, and Kasper Lykke took his chance to win heat 8.

The Rockets clearly realised that there was so much going on in the home camp that they had a chance, and they gave it everything they had. Monarchs were not lucky to win, they deserved it after so many problems, but the Rockets contributed fully to a dramatic evening as well.

Plenty of interest in Rockets' visit

You’ll be able to spot any Rye House fans at Armadale this week as they will now be wearing the new orange and black colours of the BMR Rockets.

That’s unless they are traditionalists and are still wearing the blue and yellow, impersonating Monarchs’ fans.

We habitually say that the tracks at Armadale and Rye House are similar so the matches should be close, but in recent times that hasn’t really been the case when Len Silver’s team has visited. The bosses now are Warren Scott and Steve Jenson (plus team manager Peter Schroek) so we will see if they can do any better.

They have generally scored in the high thirties but the last really good performance by the Rockets was a 49-43 defeat in 2010, in which Linus Sundstrom and Jordan Frampton scored a 5-1 in the last race to grab a point (which then meant we lost one).

The current Rockets team would need to pick up some away points if they were to move up the table. They do have a side most of whom have done well at Armadale in the past.

Edward Kennett has been one of the leading small track specialists in the UK for many years, and we have seen him ride brilliantly on a number of occasions, beating all of the top home men. He is currently sporting a Green Sheet average of over 10 and is doing well for his Elite team Lakeside, winning the opening heat at Belle Vue the other night. Thankfully Rye House have precedence for this fixture so we will be seeing Eddie.

It’s actually Stuart Robson who has the best Armadale record of the Rockets, averageing over 8 from his 14 visits. He’s 39 now but that doesn’t mean he takes it easy, he’s still a fighter.

Their middle pairing of Cameron Heeps and Leigh Lanham is the unpredictable part of the team, but both of these riders have scored double figures at Armadale in their time. Aussie Heeps is well remembered for his brilliant display in the Knockout Cup Final of 2014 for Ipswich.

A piece of trivia regarding the veteran Lanham is that his dad Mike, formerly an Ipswich Witch, reaches the age of 65 shortly.

Completing the top five, Kasper Lykke is a former Glasgow rider and one of the great triers of the Premier League, usually trying to make up for slow gating. He is always worth watching.

At no. 6 we will be meeting up again with our old friend Robert Branford. Rob was a great contributor last year in our league winning campaign, and should have guested for us against Glasgow last month, had the weather not intervened. He will be cracking jokes again tomorrow and no doubt looking forward to showing us what he can do.

Ben Morley is their no. 7, averageing over 4 and one of the most experienced of the riders permitted to ride in that position.

So it is a side which could click if they are all on form. On the other hand the Border Roofing Monarchs should feel confident, as long as they can shake off the disappointing form shown at Glasgow.

We have the full team back, with captain Sam Masters fresh from his World Cup heroics. He really is making a substantial mark in the Speedway world at the moment with his performances for all his teams. We just have to hope that he is getting enough sleep.

Mark Riss didn’t enjoy his last home meeting but he has ridden well in Germany since then and should find the track more to his liking tomorrow than it was two weeks ago.

Erik Riss also missed last week due to that German match but he has been going well everywhere and was in double figures last time at Armadale.

Ryan Fisher stayed in the World Cup till Friday and had to shoulder much of the responsibility since Greg Hancock was taking the night off. He showed all his usual spirit and we wil be seeing the same tomorrow.

Kevin Wolbert did a great job as captain last week and saw the match out in style with three wins. That heat 13 victory was one of the races of the season.

But now to the real heroes! Who would have believed that we would have got double figures from both Max Clegg and Dan Bewley last week, especially when both made slow starts in heat 2! They started zooming out of the starts after that and that will hopefully be a bit of a turning point for both.

So while we would expect a home win tomorrow, it can’t be taken for granted and we hope for some entertaining speedway whatever happens.