COME OUT AND GET BEHIND US

NEWS Friday 20th May 2011, 7:33pm

by Steve Dixon

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Scotwaste Monarchs face one of their biggest challenges of the season when the revamped and revitalised Newport Wasps arrive at The Scotwaste Arena on Friday night to race the below strength home team.

Said Scotwaste Monarchs co-promoter, John Campbell, "If you had suggested a week ago that Newport would present a severe test to us at Armadale then I would have laughed at you, but things move on so quickly in speedway and we are certainly looking at a different proposition now. They have signed one of the top riders in the Premier League in Jason Doyle to add to the recently acquired Justin Sedgman and both will make their debuts at Armadale. Our efforts to get Kalle Katajisto to Sweden in time for his World Under 21 qualifier on Saturday have failed and he is joined in missing our match by our inform reserve Kyle Howarth. He piled up big time at Wolverhampton on Tuesday riding for Belle Vue Colts. It seems he has got away with some bruising but it is some very bad bruising and he's very sore at the moment."

"However, I don't want our supporters to be all doom and gloom about our chances on Friday night. We still have our four best Armadale riders available to us and Craig and Matthew will each get an additional ride in place of Kalle. We've also been more selective in our selection of our guest to replace Kyle. Last time we needed a guest in similar circumstances we brought in Gary Irving. He's doing very well this year but he hadn't ridden Armadale before and struggled. On this occasion we have brought in Byron Bekker, who has had many laps of Armadale, to partner Lee Dicken and they will be up against Todd Kurtz, who failed to beat anyone in his only previous visit and fellow Aussie Mark Jones, who has been struggling of late."

Campbell concluded by saying, "I think that our under strength team is more than capable of pinching all three league points on offer but there is no doubt that in these kind of circumstances the vocal support of the crowd can be worth a few points to the team. Therefore I'd request all supporters to turn out and be in good voice to cheer the team to victory."

Rider replacement will be used at number 2 for Kalle Katajisto and Byron Bekker will line up at number 7.

Full Result Details