Smarter Than The Average Bears

NEWS Wednesday 7th June 2017, 2:23pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Redcar Bears return to Armadale this week with an improved line-up since their last visit and on the lookout for points in a SGB Championship tussle.

INCONSISTENT BEARS LOOKING TO GEL

The visitors have had an inconsistent start to the season with some excellent road performances being let down by some poor home scores and they will be hoping to make up for these dropped points at home by leaving Armadale with something on Friday.

INJURIES A KEY FACTOR

One of the main reasons for the Bears indifferent form so far this season has been a rash of injuries and absences to key personnel and in fact looking at their fixtures it shows that they have only managed to field their intended 1-7 in 3 of their home matches so far and that does not account for being forced into an early season change when former Monarch Tobias Busch was injured.

The Teesside outfit are now getting close to full health but are still amiss recent signing Danny Ayres. Ayres place will be taken by Matt Williamson on Friday in a change that no doubt makes the visitors stronger as Williamson is currently averaging over 7 points a match so far but due to the variances of the rules he is still available to guest on his season starting average.

MONARCHS NOT TAKING ANYTHING FOR GRANTED

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs move into a key spell in their season over the coming weeks with no less than 6 league meetings due to take place in little over a two week period starting at Ipswich this Thursday. Positive results will key as although the Monarchs currently sit atop the SGB Championship the chasing pack are gaining. No one in the Monarchs camp is being complacent ahead of the fixtures ahead and if anything the message is actually ‘we can do better’ there is a little bit of a feeling that the Monarchs are where they are in spite of their form rather than because of it co-promoter Alex Harkess stating ‘At the moment we seem to have enough performing at home to win matches, but not enough away. I keep thinking that we’ll get everyone performing at their best and be a really good team but I’m not sure when it is going to happen. We’ll keep working on it! We have three important matches this week. Redcar at home is no different to any home match because we want to win any home match. Yes they have one or two riders who can certainly get round our place, but we have to overcome that. Hopefully if all or nearly all of our riders perform to what we know they are capable of, we will be fine.’

Teams for the SGB Championship match at Armadale on Friday 9th June (start time 7:30pm, gates open 6:30pm), are:

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

REDCAR SG PETCH BEARS: Jason Garrity, Jonas B. Andersen, Ben Barker, Ellis Perks, Charles Wright, Coty Garcia, Matt Williamson (guest)

DIFFERENT LOOKING BEARS: While the Bears were beaten reasonably comfortably 52-40 on their last Armadale visit back in April this is a very different looking Redcar line-up that will no doubt give the Monarchs problems. Jason Garrity and Charles Wright both missed the previous meeting add to that Richard Hall since being replaced and the Bears will be on the hunt for the spoils on Friday. If Jonas B Andersen and Coty Garcia match their earlier performances at the Dale and Ben Barker continues to rediscover his form then this has the potential to be a banana skin for the home men.

LAST MEETING: The Parsons Peebles Monarchs were run close for the second time this season by the Sheffield Tigers before prevailing 49-44. The Monarchs were led by Max Clegg and Ricky Wells who both recorded 11 point hauls; top man for the Tigers was Kyle Howarth with 13.

NEXT MEETING: Another big encounter as Ipswich head to Armadale. The Witches have a powerhouse top 5 headlined by British Champion Danny King alongside Monarch legends Rory Schlein and Justin Sedgmen so a tough contest awaits.

Full Result Details