Title Partner
Monarchs piled up easily their biggest score of the season against a Stoke team which provided mediocre opposition.
There were a number of heats which provided very easy home 5-1's with a big gap between the Monarchs' pair and the opposition. Alan Mogridge returned to the Potters' team after a back injury but had as poor a meeting as he has ever had at Armadale, while new signing Trent Leverington also struggled.
There was little compensation at reserve, and it was left to Lemon, Kessler and the hard riding Clews to provide such opposition as there was.
We were 9-3 up after two uneventful heats, then Kessler led heat 3. William Lawson was riding with a puncture and obviously struggling, so it looked like a heat loss until Kessler fell at the end of lap 3. That gifted us a 4-2 with Matthew taking the win.
Rusty and Derek took a 5-1 by a large margin from heat 4, and William with air in his back tyre romped home in heat 5. Moggo again got nowhere near our 5-1 pair in heat 6, with Henrik looking very happy on his new engine, and we were now 27-9 ahead in a very one-sided contest.
Kessler took a TR but heat 7 was easy for Rusty, so Stoke took a 5-3 with Sean not showing much of his recent good form.
Heat 8 was the easiest 5-1 yet, and heat 9 was the same as William and Matthew rode together, a long way clear of Mogridge.
Precious little had happened up to this point, but Paul Clews suddenly got the hang of things and gave Theo a battle in heat 10. He burst past at one point, only for Theo to cut back into the lead with a disdainful look over his shoulder.
Mark Lemon took a TR in heat 11 but a fine first bend gave Rusty his third win. Clews won heat 12 after a good battle with Matthew, and Derek passed Evans for the point but lost his own unbeaten record.
Heat 13 was worth watching as Lemon held off the double challenge of Henrik and Rusty, and we had a third shared heat running as William won heat 14. Sean's poor run continued as he lost third place to Luke Priest who passed him.
Finally Lemon took his second win over Rusty and Henrik, in a match completed in 70 minutes. Just the job on a freezing cold night.
HALMOND ENGINEERING MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Theo Pijper.
After the Monarchs' comfortable win at Stoke in this tournament it would be a major shock if they didn't complete the double on Friday night to take all three points up for grabs. It's always dangerous to make assumptions but there will surely be a steward's enquiry if there is any other result than a comfortable home win.
Of particular interest will be the form of Sean Stoddart who has shown such a massive improvement in his last few matches culminating in an excellent 7 points guesting for Newcastle last Sunday against Berwick. We should also see a much improved Henrik Moller now that he has sorted his engines out. Rusty Harrison is now looking much closer to the rider who was so effective last season and William Lawson continues to open a few eyes with his excellent performances in the Elite League with Wolverhampton such as on Wednesday when he scored 9+2 at Arena Essex.
What of Stoke? There is still no definite news of whether Alan Mogridge will have recovered sufficiently from his back injury to take his place in the line up but one rider who will be there is new signing Trent Leverington who replaces Michael Coles at number 2. He will partner top scorer Mark Lemon in the top Stoke pairing while old faithfuls, Paul Clews and the fast starting Robbie Kessler, constitute the middle pairing. At reserve are Jack Hargreaves and Luke Priest neither of whom are strangers to Armadale.
Stoke had an excellent away win in their Premier League match at Newport last Sunday with Robbie Kessler and Paul Clews doing a lot of the damage backing up Mark Lemon. Newport were not at their best having to go into this match without the unfortunate Craig Watson and Neil Collins, their top two points scorers, so perhaps the Potters met them at the right time. Mark Lemon can always be relied upon to score heavily but we must make sure that Robbie Kessler and Paul Clews are not allowed to provide back-up similar to that at Newport. Kessler has won races at Armadale in the past by virtue of his fast starts but he fails to impress when he doesn't make the gate while Paul Clews would probably not rate Armadale as his favourite away track judging by his scores here in the past. If Alan Mogridge does ride he will certainly add to the entertainment value of the match since he is a fine rider with the ability to make passes. At Armadale he has not always scored as many as expected due in part to the number of falls he has suffered here.
The two reserves have not enjoyed many good times round Armadale in the Premier League and we can surely look to Derek Sneddon and Sean Stoddart to outscore them comfortably.
In summary it should be three points to the Monarchs and a chance for the riders to improve their bank balances unless, of course, these turn out to be famous last words!
© Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway 2024
Bathgate Road
Armadale
EH48 2PD
