Scottish Battle for Cup Progress

NEWS Wednesday 13th July 2016, 4:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs are looking for a good lead from Friday’s first leg of the Knockout Cup quarter final when Glasgow Tigers visit Armadale.

The recent Scottish derby on Sky attracted much favourable comment for atmosphere and incident and this is the next instalment. Monarchs have Rob Branford in for Max Clegg who rides for Wolves at Lakeside, while Glasgow have Lasse Bjerre and Matt Williamson in for Richie Worrall (riding for Belle Vue) and injured Nike Lunna. The second leg of the tie is due at Ashfield on Sunday 31st July.

CONFIDENT RYAN: There’s not many riders in better form than Ryan Fisher right now so it’s not so surprising that our American star is confident that the team can do well in this cup tie.

He said “I think we can win it. We need everyone scoring as they are capable. We never seem to have everyone clicking but if three or four of us are really on it, that maybe allows a little bit of slack at the bottom end. I’m very hopeful.”

THANKS TO TIGERS: Friday’s event is due to be the 10th home meeting of the season at Armadale. Never in their history have Monarchs raced less than 10 matches by mid-July.

Even though it has been a stop-start season Monarchs were struggling to arrange a fixture for Friday, so promoter John Campbell has thanked Glasgow for accepting the fixture.

He said “I’m very grateful to Glasgow for agreeing to come here. Despite having outstanding fixtures to fulfil I did think that we were going to have a blank night tonight so a Tigers visit fills the date very nicely.”

WORLD CUP: Sam Masters has been confirmed for the Australian side for the World Cup, racing initially at Vastervik Sweden in the second qualifier.

It’s an honour for the Monarchs’ captain who is delighgted to be taking his next step up the speedway ladder.

It is expected that Ryan Fisher (USA) and Kevin Wolbert (Germany) will also be in the meeting with Erik Riss a contender for the German Under-21 position at reserve.

With these three countries represented in the one event, it is certain that at least two of the teams will be involved in the Race off and/or Final on the Friday / Saturday.

Teams for the Knockout Cup Match at Armadale on Friday 15th July (start time 7:30pm, gates open 6:30pm), are:

BORDER ROOFING MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), Mark Riss, Erik Riss, Ryan Fisher, Kevin Wolbert, Rob Branford (guest), Dan Bewley.

GLASGOW ALLIED VEHICLE TIGERS: Richard Lawson, Rene Bach, Lasse Bjerre (guest), Fernando Garcia, Aaron Summers, Matt Williamson (guest), Danny Ayres.

TIGERS WILL BE TOUGH: A lot might depend on which riders Tigers find to step in as guests for Friday, but in any case Glasgow do not go anywhere these days without being very positive about getting a result.

Richard Lawson and Aaron Summers are a very strong spearhead with ex-Monarch Summers especially an Armadale expert. They have Rene Bach in their side now and the ex-Workington man is sure to be settling in fast following his recent return.

Dane Lasse Bjerre has been having a mixed time with Redcar but at his best he is extremely quick and can win races anywhere. Tigers had hoped for good news regarding Lunna’s injury but reported today that a hospital visit didn’t go well. Matt Williamson did have a good meeting for Workington at Armadale earlier in the year.

Garcia and Ayres are both triers who can’t be counted out in any heat so we are expecting 15 hotly contested heats on Friday.

LAST MEETING: The Border Roofing Monarchs beat a tenacious Berwick side 50-40 at Armadale on Friday 1st July.

NEXT MEETING: We welcome Scunthorpe on 22nd July and expect an interesting match following their recent away win at Peterborough!