Looking To Shine Against the Diamonds

PREVIEW Sunday 14th May 2017, 11:20am

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs take to the road again Sunday evening as we take a trip down the A1 to Brough Park to take on the Newcastle Diamonds.

The Diamonds will be on a high after recording an excellent victory at Peterborough last night and although currently sitting 9th in the table this is wholly down to having raced less matches than any other team in the league and the hosts will be looking to use today to springboard up the standings.

Boasting one of the strongest top 4’s in the league the Diamonds are currently unbeaten at home and have not let anyone leave Brough Park with so much as a point so far this season and with 50+ scores recorded against Berwick (twice) and Ipswich we are in for a battle to gain anything.

The battles at the top end will again be something to behold as the Diamonds are led well by Robert Lambert and Steve Worrall. The two Englishman are always well backed by Ludvig Lindgren and Lewis Rose also in what is an impressive quartet.

The Diamonds have been forced into a change at the bottom end as Ben Hopwood replaces the injured Danny Phillips. Phillips unfortunately suffering serious injuries in a crash last week and we wish him all the best in his recovery.

A couple of familiar names complete the Diamonds ranks in former Monarch Ashley Morris who after a bit of a nomadic career appears to be settling in well in the north east and a familiar name but for a different reason is reserve Connor Coles. Coles is of course the son of long time Monarch from the Powderhall era Michael Coles and it will be interesting to see if he has the same swashbuckling style that his dad had.

As last Sunday at Peterborough was the Monarchs 8th match of the season this means our new averages come into effect and a line-up shuffle is required.

After his excellent start to the season Ricky moves to number 1 in the team swapping places with Sam who moves to number 5. Unfortunately Mark Riss’s spell at reserve comes to an end also and he will now form a middle of the order pairing with his brother Erik as he moves to number 4 switching with Max who moves to number 6.

So an interesting tussle awaits as we head to a track where we have had some success over the last few seasons. A depleted Monarchs missing Erik and Ryan Fisher managed to claim a point in a curtailed match last season in a meeting that was ultimately to end Dan Bewley’s season for us. We also tasted victory at Brough Park over various competitions in 2013, 14 and 15 as well although of course those were different line-up in different circumstances and the Monarchs may well be happy should they head north with a point this evening.

NEWCASTLE SAPPHIRE ENGINEERING DIAMONDS: Robert Lambert, Ashley Morris, Lewis Rose, Ludvig Lindgren, Steve Worrall, Ben Hopwood, Connor Coles

EDINBURGH PARSONS PEEBLES MONARCHS: Ricky Wells, Josh Pickering, Erik Riss, Mark Riss, Sam Masters, Max Clegg, Mitchell Davey

Full Result Details