STARTING AGAIN

NEWS Wednesday 29th March 2006, 10:00am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs will face the challenge of Glasgow Tigers on Friday (31st) when they make their second attempt to start the Scottish Speedway season.

Damage done at the Stadium early this week will be repaired and once again the hope is that favourable weather conditions will allow the action to begin! Two heats out of a scheduled 45 last weekend was a poor reward for getting through the winter. No-one is in any doubt that Tigers represent a considerable threat on Friday and a big early test to the new-look Monarchs.

THE WEATHER WON

No doubt about the dominant factor last weekend ? it was the weather.

Last Friday's match was called off just after 5 with the stadium looking bleak and wet.

In spite of a bright start to Saturday, it was dull by start time at Berwick, and though two heats were completed it then started raining heavily, and after a long delay the match was abandoned.

The Glasgow leg of the Spring Trophy was called off on Sunday morning.

GOLDEN DOUBLE

Supporters will have their first chance on Friday to try the Monarchs' new game, the Golden Double, which allows them to have a Fun Flutter on two games -

SPOT THE SCORE, ie guess the precise score, and -

THE HOSKINS HAT TRICK, ie predict the correct result of heats 2, 8 and 13.

The Golden Double will be available to play every Friday this summer.

PREMIER TROPHY STARTS

The Premier Trophy gets under way on Saturday as Monarchs visit Workington, where the Comets have made a strong start to the season.

Next Thursday Monarchs are at Sheffield and on (Friday 7th) Newcastle come to Armadale.

It couldn't be a tougher start!

SPONSOR ON FRIDAY

Sponsors of Friday's match will be Scotwaste, the 2006 team sponsors of the Monarchs. They should have sponsored last Friday and by now will probably have adopted the speedway habit of looking at the skies on a Friday morning!

TEAMS FOR THE SPRING TROPHY MATCH AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 31st MARCH (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

EDINBURGH SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Henrik Moller, Theo Pijper (capt.), Matthew Wethers, William Lawson, Rusty Harrison, Derek Sneddon, Sean Stoddart.

GLASGOW PREMIER TRAVEL INN TIGERS: Danny Bird, David McAllan, Lee Dicken, Kauko Nieminen, Shane Parker (capt.), Robert Ksiezak, James Cockle.

TIGERS' STRONG START

Not a great deal more we can do, since neither team has raced a match since, other than repeat our brief preview of last week ?

Glasgow have made a great start to the season by winning at Berwick, and the most pleasing aspect for them was the number of different race winners they had.

David McAllan, Robert Ksiezak and Kauko Nieminen all won heats at vital stages, which suggests that there will indeed be good backup to the powerhouse top two of Shane Parker and Danny Bird.

James Cockle also went well and Tigers do appear to have one of the best reserve pairings around. Robert Ksiezak has used his winter well and seems to have regained the form he showed for Monarchs early last season, prior to breaking his leg.

NEXT WEEK'S MEETING: Visitors to Armadale next Friday (7th April) in the Premier Trophy will be Newcastle. The Diamonds are one of the teams most fancied for Trophies this summer. Monarchs will also visit Workington on Saturday 1st April and Sheffield on Thursday 6th.

The matches at Berwick (Premier Trophy) and Glasgow (Spring Trophy) which weren't completed last weekend, have not been rescheduled yet.

HALMOND ENGINEERING MAN OF THE MATCH: Halmond Engineering of Blackburn, West Lothian will be sponsoring a weekly Man of the Match at Armadale this season.