We're Going On A Bear Hunt

NEWS Thursday 22nd June 2017, 12:00pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs make the relatively short trip down the A1 to Redcar Thursday night in the hunt for points to reaffirm their place at the top of the SGB Championship.

After a tremendous start to the season the Monarchs have now failed to pick up anything from each of their last 2 away league matches and with a fairly heavy defeat at Sheffield in the KO Cup in that time as well we will be looking to get back on track on Teesside.

This will be no easy task though as the Bears have only tasted defeat once at home in the league so far this season and that was against Glasgow when the home men were missing 3 of their regulars.

The Bears have a fearsome line-up at home with Ben Barker, Charles Wright, Jonas B Andersen and Ellis Perks all having averages in excess of 8 points round their home shale. A 5th member of the team can lay claim to this as well in number 1 Jason Garrity but unfortunately he is still feeling the effects of his crash at Armadale a couple of weeks ago and despite attempting a comeback in last Monday’s British Final this was to be short-lived and a spell on the sidelines looks likely. Stepping in to replace the Lancashire born racer is Scunthorpe’s Lewis Kerr. Kerr is somewhat of a track expert at the Media Prime Arena recording paid 15 in the Scorpions recent visit.

Going back to that British Final I don’t think anyone who watched it could let the performance of Ben Barker go without comment. Barker rolled back the years in reaching the final and in many eyes while Craig Cook was the obvious star of the show if there was an award for most entertaining rider of the night it would have gone to Barker.

One of the Bears main strengths is at the bottom end of the line-up where Coty Garcia and Danny Ayres form one of the strongest pairings in the league. Garcia has had a little of an up and down season (with no pun intended after his horror smash the other week) but on a new engine he was paid for double figures last week and we will need our bottom pairing to be on form to nullify this.

For the Parsons Peebles Monarchs we of course welcome back Theo Pijper to the fold for what is his 4th debut in the Blue and Gold. It will be old hat for Theo by now but if he can match the scoring power that Mark Riss has been showing so far that will go a long way to the Monarchs being in the mix. With the current form of our top 3 this could be a position we have a little extra strength in so if Max can carry on his recent form and Josh finds his feet quickly then the hope would be we don’t come home empty handed.

With our nearest challengers edging ever closure and with Redcar currently sitting fifth just outside the playoffs any damage we could inflict on them tomorrow will be key.

Redcar SG Petch Bears: Lewis Kerr (guest), Jonas B Andersen, Ben Barker, Ellis Perks, Charles Wright, Coty Garcia, Danny Ayres

Parsons Peebles Monarchs: Sam Masters, Theo Pijper, Erik Riss, Max Clegg, Ricky Wells, Josh Pickering, Mitchell Davey

Full Result Details