Well Beaten At Scunny

The Scunthorpe Scorpions were quick to avenge their 16 point defeat at Armadale on Friday night with a 56-34 victory over the Staggs Bar Monarchs on Sunday afternoon.

The meeting had a mixture of everything with a delay to the start due to the paramedic getting the start time mixed up that allowed a thunderstorm to roll in leading to difficult conditions and a lack of track work meaning by the end clouds of dust rising.

Heats 3 and 4 were raced in torrential rain causing difficulty for the riders to see with the meeting referee refusing to pause for the thunderstorm to pass over. A track inspection was called for following heat 4 purely to create time for the rain to stop and to allow the fallen water to soak into the surface. A sensible course of action which allowed racing to improve upon resumption.

None of that is an excuse though in what was a pretty toothless display by the Staggs Bar Monarchs with none of the riders particularly happy with their display.

One rider who was competitive throughout was Willie Lawson with the Auchterarder man saying after ''I thought at the start of the meeting we would run them close but then that rain came and messed us up a bit, it took us a bit to get going. It's disappointing but it's just the way it goes.''

The Monarchs got off to the best possible start as guest Rasmus Jensen and James Sarjeant raced to an opening heat 5-1 but that was to be as good as it got.

The home men had the deficit pulled back by the end of heat 3 and with further heat advantages for the Scorpions in heats 4,5 and 6 also the Monarchs were 10 points down and fighting a losing battle.

Any hopes of gaining anything from the match were extinguished in heat 9 when tactical substitute Rasmus Jensen could not trouble the Scunthorpe pair with Cameron Heeps adrift also and from then in it was damage limitation.

Their was a couple of bright spots with Josh Pickering battling to 2 wins, the young Aussies night finished on the deck in heat 15 though with Pickering complaining of being sore after but hoping no further damage done.

Elsewhere Lawson and Sarjeant were competitive and guest Jensen battled manfully.

All in all though the Scorpions were deserved winners with Josh Auty in imperious form well backed up by Simon Lambert and Ben Barker in particular. The Monarchs must now look to improve with important matches to come.

Scunthorpe Bound Looking To Do The Double

The Staggs Bar Monarchs are on the road this week as they make a return trip to Scunthorpe looking to build on the recent upturn in form in SGB Championship action.

The Monarchs are starting to get to the stage where away points are a necessity if a playoff charge is to be mounted and the feeling in the camp is this can start in Lincolnshire.

The task will not be easy with Scunthorpe generally in good form at home although they did suffer a home defeat to Glasgow just last week.

One of the stars of the show for the Tigers last week was Rasmus Jensen who raced to a 14 point score including a heat 15 win to clinch the points and a repeat of that performance would be much appreciated as the Dane steps in at number 1 with Sam Masters having to miss the meeting due to Polish commitments.

A further change to our usual line-up comes at reserve Connor Coles missing out after picking up a knock at Stoke last night. Matt Marson stepping in to guest.

Elsewhere the team is as expected with the guys in the main body of the team all looking to carry on from Friday nights solid performance, more will be needed from William particularly in Connor's absence but on improved machinery he should be competitive.

Scunthorpe on the other hand will be looking to get back to winning ways after that defeat to the Tigers and they know that another home loss will all but end their playoff hopes.

More will be expected from Jake Allen, Josh Auty and Stefan Nielsen than the 6 points contributed between them on Friday but on their home patch all are excellent performers.

Danny Ayres will look to continue a fantastic week after his British Final exploits and excellent display at Armadale while Ben Barker looks to have a new lease of life since his introduction to the team.

At reserve there is the mix of experience and youth with Simon Lambert and Ryan Kinsley both very capable around the Eddie Wright Raceway also.

So a tough task ahead with both teams in need of points. Sam and Connor will be missed but with hopefully suitable replacements in place the Monarchs will head south confident of a result.

There is a band of supporters making the trip and they will be sure to be in full voice cheering on the boys, for those not in attendance keep an eye on the official website for updates.