Final Meeting, Ryan's Farewell, Lightning Reunion and Thank The Fans Night!

NEWS Wednesday 5th October 2016, 1:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Border Roofing Monarchs take on Glasgow Tigers at Armadale on Friday, always an occasion in itself, and the Monarchs’ promotion will be saying “Thank you to the Fans” for their part in ensuring we have made it to the end of our season.

On top of that we will all be saying our farewells to Ryan Fisher, one of our best-ever riders who is bowing out of British Speedway with this match.

Reflecting on the season John Campbell said “It’s better to win trophies than lose trophies but we did think at the beginning of the season that this would be a season of transition and I think we did create a team that could have gone all the way but for that dreadful Dan Bewley crash at Newcastle at the end of August.”

Teams for the Premier League Match at Armadale on Friday 7th October (start time 7.30pm, gates open 6.30pm), are:

BORDER ROOFING MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), Ryan Fisher, Erik Riss, Mark Riss, Kevin Wolbert, Max Clegg, Matt Williamson.

GLASGOW ALLIED VEGICLES TIGERS: Richie Worrall, rider replacement for Nike Lunna, Aaron Summers, Rene Bach, Richard Lawson, Fernando Garcia, Danny Ayres.

THANKS TO THE FANS: Supporters will be thanked publicly by the Promotion on Friday for their contribution to a season wrecked by the weather. The contribution from the Monarchs Fans Trust’ Monarchs Grand Draw and the Monarchs 100 Walk has been around £50,000.

TIGERS’ TAILS UP: Glasgow are finishing the season strongly and are well placed to repeat Monarchs’ feat of a couple of years ago by winning the Premier League, Knockout Cup and League Cup.

They are almost certain to reach the League Cup Final against Somerset (they have a huge lead over Workington), they are in the Knockout Cup final against either Newcastle or Rye House, and they have a Premier Playoff semi-final against Sheffield.

So they have many priorities but they would certainly love to win the final match of the 2016 season at Armadale.

PREMIER LEAGUE: The Border Roofing Monarchs have finished fourth in the Premier League table and on Friday they will try to complete an unbeaten home league record for the season – something they didn’t manage in their title-winning campaign last season!

LIGHTNING REUNION: Sponsors of the match, and meeting up in Hospitality for the night, will be riders, officials and fans of the 1996 Linlithgow Lightning Conference League and Cup winners.

TIGERS WELL PLACED: Glasgow seem strongly placed to land three trophies in the remainder of October, and they seem to be close to having all of their seven riders back for the key matches (though Lunna won’t be back for Friday).

Their heat leader trio of Richie Worrall, Richard Lawson and Aaron Summers have all had good seasons, doubling up in the Elite League, and they have successfully filled in their problem position at no. 4 with mid-season signing Rene Bach who has shown his best form for years.

Just as important, their three lowest average riders Nike Lunna, Fernando Garcia and Danny Ayres have all raised their averages and have played their part in full in the successes of the season.

FANS' TRUST RAFFLE: The Monarchs' Fans Trust, who have been such a fantastic support to the club this season are staging a raffle with a £500 first prize to be drawn in November. If you want to help by selling some tickets, books will be available to sell from the Gazebo from 6.30pm till tapes up and then in the bar after the meeting.

LAST MEETING: Monarchs beat Ipswich 53-37 in the second leg of the Premier Playoff quarter final but went out by 85-95 on aggregate. Top scorer was Erik Riss with 12+1.

FAREWELL TO RYAN: Ryan Fisher will bow out of British Speedway after a career which began, over here anyway, in 2002 at Coventry. For Monarchs, Ryan has raced four seasons, Friday will be his 192nd match in our colours and he has scored 2088 points.

He said “I’ve met tons of cool fans and cool people that have helped me. It’s been an experience to live and learn about speedway here. It’s something I can look back on and think I’ve done decently for myself. I haven’t reached my ultimate goal but I have for the last 15 years been able to make a career out of racing motorcycles.”