Ryan's Big Night: Flyin Tonight

NEWS Wednesday 1st June 2016, 5:40pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Ryan Fisher will be flyin when his rider friends and supporters gather to celebrate his career at Armadale Stadium on Friday in a 20-heat individual event with a Grand Final. The Grand Parade will be at 7:15 with the first race at 7:30.

“The Fish” is of course a double league championship winner with the Monarchs, and the only year he rode for us and we didn’t win the league, we came second. What’s more in a career spanning the period since 2002, he has scored 30 maximums, and 25 of these have been for Monarchs!

Friday’s meeting will be sponsored by the Monarchs’ team sponsors Border Roofing, and others have rallied round to give Ryan a decent level of sponsorship backing for the event.

Ryan has a ‘pit bike’ and other awards for the winner and the other three finalists. Who do we think might take the honours?

It could be Ryan Fisher himself, thinking back to Frede Schott’s Testimonial in 2004 when he led the final heat only to blow up and gift the big prize to Charlie Gjedde!

Home captain Sam Masters will be widely favoured in his current form, flying for Monarchs and his Elite team at Wolverhampton.

From the exalted heights of the Elite League, Monarchs’ double winning Aussie Justin Sedgmen will be back at Armadale for the first time since last October’s title triumph – and what’s more he has also just signed for the big Polish Elite club Zielona Gora.

Workington’s American no. 1 Ricky Wells is often thought to be the top Premier League visitor these days – of course he knows Ryan from their World Cup outings together.

Any Glasgow fans venturing along the M8 will very likely be supporting their own captain Aaron Summers who is in great form again and was brilliant at Newcastle on Monday.

You can’t discount Newcastle’s lively Swedish captain Ludvig Lindgren who rode well in his team’s narrow defeat last week at Armadale.

And how about the two Americans who are flying over for the event? The man Ryan said he wanted above all others to ride was Billy Janniro, and an equally welcome visitor is Charles Dukie Ermolenko the former Glasgow no. 1.

Glasgow have another representative in the popular Argentinian Fernando Garcia, and there’s another Newcastle Diamond – the unpredictable Matej Kus.

Australian Mitchell Davey, though not in a team at the moment due to passport issues, is another home contender while of course there are two Scots returning to the fray.

Many will be coming to see how they perform. They are team mates from the 2008 and 2010 League victories, Andrew Tully and William Lawson. When did Scotland last have two riders of that standard in a meeting?

Sadly there are three changes to the field previously announced as Scandinavians Kenneth Hansen, Thomas H Jonasson and Dennis Jonsson have found it too tough to put arrangements in place. Therefore we are doubly indebted to Workington’s Adam Roynon and Ipswich’s James Sarjeant for stepping into the fray at very short notice. Thanks lads.

And finally… another stepping in at short notice is Monarchs’ own remarkable teenager Dan Bewley.

Riding order: Ryan Fisher (USA), Dan Bewley (England), Andrew Tully (Scotland), Matej Kus (Czech Republic), Ricky Wells (USA), Justin Sedgmen (Australia), Adam Roynon (England), Charles Ermolenko (USA), Sam Masters (Australia), William Lawson (Scotland), Aaron Summers (Australia), Billy Janniro (USA), James Sarjeant (England), Ludvig Lindgren (Sweden), Fernando Garcia (Argentina), Mitchell Davey (GB).

Admission prices on Friday are the same as for any senior meeting at Armadale though we have put a slight increase on the programme at £3. Please note that SEASON TICKETS ARE NOT VALID FOR TESTIMONIALS.

SUNGLASSES: The first twenty fans through the turnstiles will be given a pair of Gene Woods Racing sunglasses. If you miss out, they can be bought at the Testimonial stall.

SPECIAL GUESTS: The special gusts for the evening will be rivals from the seventies, Bert Harkins (Scotland) and Gene Woods (USA).