Home and away duel with the Bandits

NEWS Wednesday 8th August 2018, 7:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs are involved in the battle for Playoff places so will be looking to take as many points as they can from the home and away clashes with the Berwick Bandits on Friday (Armadale) and Saturday (Shielfield). Both teams have recently displayed very strong form on their own track.

In the last two weeks Monarchs have scored no fewer than 134 points against Redcar and Scunthorpe, but surely Berwick will run them closer with a team who know the circuit well and have a very effective-looking reserve pairing of Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen and Theo Pijper. Pijper, Aaron Summers and Kevin Doolan have between them over 300 appearances at Armadale – roughly as many as the whole of the home team.

Recent home capture Richie Worrall will be going for his third successive unbeaten meeting for Monarchs! Every point is going to count in the Playoff battle so the away fixture on Saturday is equally important. In Berwick's last home match they scored 58 against Glasgow.

Team manager Alex Harkess said "The home match against Berwick is one that we expect to win because we expect to win all our home matches. The away match is one of these crucial ones because I think it is becoming very important to pick up something, and I'd like to think we'll do that. Berwick to be fair have done very well at home as the season has gone on, they've beaten some very good clubs, and beaten them well."

Friday is also our night for celebrating the 2000s decade, when the Monarchs landed the first two of their league championships (2003 and 2008). Theo Pijper, Matthew Wethers and Aaron Summers will be signing special posters before the match (then Theo and Aaron ride for the opposition!), and it is hoped to have other prominent representatives of the decade along.

THIS WEEK'S MEETINGS:

Friday 10th August: Staggs Bar Monarchs v Berwick (Championship), 7:30pm

STAGGS BAR MONARCHS: Ricky Wells, Victor Palovaara, Josh Pickering, Richie Worrall, Erik Riss (captain), Max Clegg, Joel Andersson.

KLS BANDITS: Kevin Doolan (captain), Aaron Summers, Dany Gappmaier, David Howe, Jye Etheridge, Theo Pijper, Nikolai Busk Jakobsen

Saturday 11th August: Berwick v Stagg's Bar Monarchs (Championship), 7:00pm