It Was All Happening at Armadale

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs finished up comfortable winners by 56-34 against Redcar tonight, but it was a hard night of racing on a very lively track which some riders handled better than others.

Home star Erik Riss who scored paid 12 said “The track was quite tough, in the beginning it was quite deep and I struggled. I had a crash in my second when I lost my steel shoe. Then I changed something on the bike and it was good. That steel shoe cost me a maximum but it happens.”

We’re looking for a bit of grip in the track but when you add in heavy rain all day Tuesday and Thursday plus more on Friday afternoon, things can be a bit more unpredictable. Not that conditions caused any problems to the likes of Sam Masters and Erik Riss, or Ben Barker, and even though Ricky Wells had to miss his last ride he expressed the wish that the track should be like this every week!

Many fans will have been looking forward to seeing Jason Garrity who has only made 4 Armadale appearances since he first came up with Leicester in 2011. Unfortunately on the first lap of heat 1 he tried an extravagant cutback on the 3rd turn, and spun off. It was announced shortly afterwards that he was withdrawing with a broken bone in his hand.

Monarchs moved smoothly ahead with the first four race wins, both Erik Riss and Ricky Wells doing well to work their way past the faster starting Barker and Wright in heats 3 and 4.

Bears were able to utilise Injury Rider Replacement for Garrity and Barker came in to heat 5. This would have been a fifth home race winner as Erik Riss led, but unfortunately his steel shoe came off and he came down on the next bend trying to improvise. That gave Bears their first race advantage but Monarchs hit back right away with a 5-1 from Sam Masters and Mark Riss over Wright.

Ben Barker took a TR in heat 7 and made a typically wholehearted effort, but he was headed by Ricky Wells, and Max Clegg’s third from the back against Perks meant that the TR heat was drawn.

Up till this point there hadn’t been too many problems for the riders but over the next few races there were a number of incidents – more than we’d like.

Last week we saw Erik Riss excluded after Lasse Bjerre had lost control in front of him. This week there was an even more blatantly wrong decision in heat 8 which had started with a good battle between Mark Riss and Jonas B Andersen. Mark shot to the front but Jonas passed him, but entering lap three Jonas completely lost it on the pits turn, almost stopped, then rolled inwards very close to the white line.

Mark had no real choice but to lay the bike down, and he commented later that he was also confused to see Williamson who had fallen a lap earlier and was sitting inches over the white line close to where Andersen ended up.

While all this was going on Mitchell Davey weaved his way through to the front. The only sensible decision was an exclusion for Andersen, and a 5-0 awarded, but no, once again the rider taking the essential avoiding action was thrown out of the race. Oh for some common sense!

So the decision was a 3-2, a win for Mitchell, and at least he enjoyed it. Erik might well have been beaten by Charles Wright in heat 9, but when Josh Pickering fell in third place, a rerun was rather needlessly ordered. Erik took advantage of the second chance. We did get the 4-2 in heat 10 from Sam and Mark against Ben Barker who was trying everything in every ride.

Heat 11 saw further incidents. Charles Wright led from Ricky Wells but in trying to squeeze inside his opponent, Ricky came off and Max Clegg could not avoid running in to him. This looked a bit nasty but the riders were up fairly quickly.

On the first bend of the rerun Andersen and Wright tangled up, with Wright losing control and falling very awkwardly on the back straight. He was excluded but it was probably his partner who was more to blame. We didn’t see either Wells or Wright in later races.

Heat 12 was a good heat as Barker again gave chase in exciting style against the flying Erik Riss, and further back Mitchell Davey rode a forceful heat to pass Garcia on the final turn.

Only Masters of the programmed riders was available for heat 13 which was a home 4-2, ensuring victory which had obviously looked on the cards for a while.

We weren’t finished with the incidents yet as Max Clegg led heat 14, but Matt Williamson ran into his back wheel, bringing him down against the fence. Again this looked potentially serious but Max did rise and walk away, though he was replaced in the rerun.

This was won by Josh Pickering who had looked quick and controlled all night, and we finished with a 5-1 from Sam and Erik who were the dominant riders on the night.

Will The Bears Catch Us Napping?

Another week another tough looking tie for the Parsons Peebles Monarchs as we look to stretch our lead at the top of the SGB Championship against the Redcar Sg Petch Bears on Friday night.

This will be no easy task though as the Bears arrive at Armadale with a solid looking line-up with plenty of experience and pedigree around our circuit and the Monarchs will need to be at their absolute best if they want to make sure the Bears leave empty handed.

This is the second time this season we will have seen Redcar but it is a different looking line-up that makes the not overly long trip up the a1 from the one that we defeated 52-40 back in April.

The first difference in the line-up comes at number 1 where Jason Garrity takes his normal place. Garrity missed the first match between the two teams due to a family funeral but is showing the kind of form overall that the Bears new management would have hoped for when they snapped him up prior to the season. Garrity is a flamboyant performer but his style and exuberance perhaps does not lend itself to the tighter confines of Armadale and he is yet to show his best form around our circuit. No one would be surprised though should this change this week.

A very strong second string slots in at number 2 in the form of Jonas B Andersen. Andersen is one of the best visitors we have seen at Armadale this season recording 12 points back in April. Andersen’s main strength that night was from the gate and as is the way with most Danes when out in front he is a very hard man to overcome. A repeat of his last Dale performance could go a long way to his team heading home with points in the bag.

Number 3 for the Bears is one of everyone’s favourite pantomime villains Ben Barker. Barker is on an uptick in form just now after sorting out some early season machinery issues. Barker would have been disappointed with his previous showing of 3 points but showed his true style with 10 points when guesting for Newcastle a few weeks ago and the Bears will be looking for a repeat of this Newcastle performance rather than his first visit of the season.

Most improved Bear so far this season is Ellis Perks at number 4. Perks has been in tremendous form this season putting the best part of 4 points onto his average which is a truly remarkable achievement. It will be interesting to see whether the young Worcester racer can maintain this level of form as he makes his first foray into the main body of the Redcar team but with his showings so far both for Redcar and for Rye House in the Premiership it would be no surprise if he was to continue on as he has so far.

A former Monarch slots in at number 5 in the Bears line-up with Charles Wright moving to Redcar at second tier level after Somerset moved into the top tier. This seems to have reinvigorated the exciting Lancashire man who has pushed his average to over 8 points per match from a starting figure of around 6.5. Wright for all his Armadale experience has never shown a great liking for the circuit but in his current form he is another who will be looking for this to change.

Moving to reserve after Perk’s promotion is Coty Garcia. Garcia thankfully appears to have come out of a dreadful looking smash last week relatively unscathed and will be looking forward to a spell at reserve to boost his scoring. Garcia had his finest ever Armadale meeting back in April with 2 heat wins among his 7 point haul and those were from the number 2 slot in the team. If Garcia shows this kind of form again then he could be a trump card for the Bears.

As is the norm we report on a change to the programmed line-up for the visitors and this time it comes at number 7. Recently signed Danny Ayres is out injured but the Bears have pulled a rabbit out of the hat in his replacement. Workington’s Matt Williamson is the man to replace Ayres in what will be his last day on his current starting season average of 3.58. Williamson has been one of the star reserves in the league so far this year and is racing to an average of over 7 so to be able to bring him in at number 7 is a tremendous boost for the Bears and one that may well be match turning.

So a competitive and balanced looking Bears line-up will face up against our home heroes the Parsons Peebles Monarchs. The Monarchs men will of course also have had the long trek home from Ipswich this evening to contend with, a journey that will seem all the longer for coming home empty handed. We will need to dust ourselves down and brush ourselves off though and be at our very best to fend off the Bears.

There will be numerous key battles throughout as we look for our top men to lead the way and put the Bears opposite numbers in their place. In my eyes though key man will be Max Clegg, this will be Clegg’s last home match at reserve before the averages change again and we will need him to continue the scintillating form we have seen at the Dale in the last few weeks particularly as we face up against one of if not the most powerful reserve pairing in the division in Garcia and Williamson (the inclusion of Williamson of course just making it all the stronger). That is not to say that everybody doesn’t have their part to play and we need everyone chipping in if we are to secure all 3 points and move back clear at the top of the Championship after Ipswich moved level on points with us with their win on Thursday night.

So another huge match and an exciting looking tussle ahead and there is only one place to be to see it all and of course that is trackside. See you there!