FIRST OF THE FINALS - DEFENDING THE TROPHY

NEWS Tuesday 22nd September 2009, 8:09pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs will be in at least two National Finals this year, and Armadale stages the first leg of the Premier Trophy Final on Friday, with King's Lynn the visitors.

The Stars from Norfolk have been the team of the year, succeeding Monarchs as league champions, but Monarchs' recent brilliant form means that they will not be going in to this Final with any kind of inferiority complex. The second leg of the Final has been rearranged for next Wednesday (30th) at King's Lynn.

TEAMS FOR THE PREMIER TROPHY FINAL FIRST LEG AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 25th September (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Ryan Fisher, Michal Rajkowski, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers (captain), Kevin Wolbert, Aaron Summers, Byron Bekker.

KING'S LYNN WARNE'S TRANSPORT STARS: Darcy Ward, rider replacement for Kozza Smith, Chris Schramm, Emiliano Sanchez, Tomas Topinka, Linus Eklof, Jan Graversen.

SENSATIONAL MONARCHS: Perhaps no team has ever achieved as much as the Scotwaste Monarchs did in such a short period last week.

They faced no fewer than FIVE matches in FOUR days, and got off to a great start by winning 49-41 at Birmingham who were at that point second in the league table. That was Wednesday.

Thursday was a visit to Sheffield, not previously such a good circuit for Monarchs, but they stuck to the task on a difficult track and came out winners 51-42!

They gained 8 league points for these two wins, and then stormed to two more wins at Armadale on Friday ? over Berwick by 60-30 and Redcar by 60-33.

Six points for these home wins under the scoring system made it FOURTEEN points in THREE days and swept Monarchs into second place!

Incredibly they then had to set off for a Saturday night match at Rye House, the second leg of the KO Cup semi-final. They went down 41-49 but won by 104-76 on aggregate to earn a well-deserved rest!

STARS GOING FOR IT ALL!: It would be extremely churlish not to acknowledge the superb efforts of King's Lynn this season. They have clinched the league title and are still involved in ALL the other national team championships!

Their captain Tomas Topinka said ?I wouldn't say this has been our best season yet. We will wait and see what happens before the end of the season before we say it has been the best!?

MATCH SPONSOR: Sponsors of Friday's big meeting are Scotmat Carpets of Broxburn, meeting sponsors in their own right for the first time though they have been joint sponsors previously.

ALL STAR MATCH-UP: This Final really is an all-star clash with both teams in peak form, and it could be said quite a bit of rivalry between the two promotions after a fiery league match in July at Armadale, won 46-45 by Monarchs.

This has been the year in which Darcy Ward has displayed his tremendous talent across Europe. He was just 16 when the season started (now 17) and he is currently the top average man in the Premier League. He crashed in his second ride on his only previous Armadale appearance.

He forms with the Stars' experienced captain Tomas Topinka a spearhead of tremendous quality. Topinka with his smooth style has served the Stars for a total of 12 seasons.

In the middle pair Stars field two riders who have had the best seasons of their careers ? spectacular Emiliano Sanchez who started his UK career in Scotland with Glasgow a decade ago, and hard-riding Chris Schramm who has been a Berwick rider in his time.

All-action Aussie Kozza Smith is injured which means that rider replacement operates for him. A key man will be 20 year old Swede Linus Eklof who is in his first British season. He is a high-quality rider to be at reserve and Monarchs will look to their own reserves to try to keep him quiet.

PLAYOFFS: Monarchs are in the Premier Playoffs, the knockout finale which leads for the winner to a Promotion Playoff against the basement team in the Elite League (which will be either Poole or Belle Vue).

Champions King's Lynn have chosen to race Birmingham, which means that Monarchs take on another high-flying side ? Newcastle Diamonds. Dates for the two legs have still to be agreed.

LAST MEETING: For the second week running Monarchs took on the task of staging a double header at Armadale last Friday. They came through with flying colours with wins over Berwick and Redcar, and completed the event within three hours.

NEXT MEETING: Fixtures for the next five weeks till the end of the season are still to be finalised but there is still everything to go for in Premier Trophy, PL Knockout Cup, Premier Playoffs and the Scottish Cup!