Scunthorpe Scorpions v Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs took a horde of supporters down to Scunthorpe where the Scorpions gave us perhaps a harder match than we expected, before our young heroes came up with the goods again.

There was a really unpleasant blustery wind whipping across the stadium all day, and the early heats didn?t go entirely to plan for us.

Thomas rode a great first heat from gate one to lead all the way in the opening race, but William didn?t look comfortable on the heavy surface and dropped from third to the rear.

Heat 2 went comfortably to the flying Tully (though he pulled one pits bend locker) but for once Aaron Summers was slow to get into his stride and finished fairly far at the rear.

Heat 3 looked as though it could be a break in the scoring as Derek gated ahead, and Ryan came alongside him down the back straight. However Derek fell going into turn three with Ryan coming down also, and initially it was announced that the American was excluded! This was probably a helmet colour confusion and eventually it was clarified that Ryan was OK for the rerun.

He made no mistake with a fine ride. Matthew then made it four winners out of four, but again it was a shared race as Aaron lost position by riding over the camber going into the first corner of lap two.

Magnus Karlsson broke his team?s race win duck by leading all the way in heat 5, in which Thomas and William had to work their way past Scott Richardson to make it the fifth shared race.

Andrew Tully took his second flying win in heat 6 but Matthew?s efforts at the rear were unsuccessful, and he took an awkward fall against the fence coming out of the last turn.

Thankfully he was OK. Richard Hall made the start in heat 7, hotly pursued by Ryan Fisher who was just short at the finish. Derek eventually got the better of Adam McKinna for the point.

We replaced Aaron with Mr Tully for heat 8, and once again he was flying, swooping into the turns in great style. Unfortunately this time Thomas missed the start and eventually lost power at the back.

Magnus took another win in heat 9, in which Aaron Summers took Tully?s place, and Aaron did well this time to pass Richardson on the opening lap to take second. Matthew eventually went under the same rider to make it an amazing 9 successive 3-3s.

The track was changing a bit now and we were about to take a grip on the match.

Tully replaced Sneddon to line up with Fisher against Moore and Wilkinson ? and the home riders made the start. However with another incredible swoop Tully went round the pair of them to the front ? to be followed through on the inside shortly afterwards by Ryan Fisher! They were irresistible and we had made the break.

Now that we had one 5-1, we wanted another and we got it. William shook off his earlier problems to make the start, and though Richard Hall held second Thomas showed great determination to push through for another maximum advantage.

Suddenly we were eight points up and maybe didn?t want to make that ten to allow them the TR. If that was in our mind it worked out because heat 12 was shared ? but only after a sensation ride by Andrew Tully.

He trailed Karlsson and actually lost second for a moment by going too wide on the bottom bend. He re-passed Bekker and threw everything into a chase on Magnus. Going into the last former he eased inside the Swede and pulled off a remarkable clean and skilful pass!

Derek was at the back so there was no TR chance for Scunny, and four laps later it was all over anyway. Matthew had had a quiet afternoon but burst from gate 4 with William backing up for another 5-1. What had been such a tight match was all over ? we only needed finishers even allowing for an unlikely 1-8.

That didn?t happen either, though Hall did take a TS ride. We brought in Tully and another 5-1 was on the cards until Andrew pulled out with a puncture, losing what would have been a second successive personal maximum.

Ryan won the heat though, and he made it a great day for him too when he joined William for a last heat 5-1. A comfortable win in the end, but we had to dig deep before we shook off the Scorpions in a very exciting fixture.

Scunthorpe Scorpions v Edinburgh Monarchs

After beating Scunthorpe at Armadale on Friday night by some 46 points, confidence must be high that the Monarchs can win this return match at Normanby Road. It will be a major disappointment if we don?t manage it.

However speedway doesn?t always work that way. A huge home win doesn?t necessarily translate into a guaranteed away win even with the same or similar line-ups.

The omens look good though. Friday night?s team performance was spectacular and with the full team out on track again this match looks within our capabilities. Even the weather forecast has improved over the last couple of days giving the match a reasonable chance of being completed.

Although the track will be new to most of the team, Andrew Tully will be looking forward on his 21st birthday by returning to his happy hunting ground of last season when he was one of the star acts for the Scorpions in the Conference League. Considering his last few performances Andrew should prove to be too much of a handful for the home side to contain. If any of the team struggle he can take up to seven races as reserve to bolster our strength.

It looks as though once again the Scorpions will have to track two Conference League guests in place of Benji Compton and Viktor Bergstrom but, if anyone thinks that the Scorpions will be a walkover following Friday night?s performance, they would do well to look at how well they did at Berwick last night with a similarly depleted team when they went down by only 48-42 to the newly reshaped Bandits? ?dream team? although it?s true the Berwick side could only track one rider in a number of heats.

The Scunthorpe top pairing of Moore and Wilkinson should prove to be their main weapon while Karlsson and Hall will be a different proposition round their own track than they were at Armadale. It could well be a busy afternoon for Byron Bekker who is likely to be asked to plug some of the gaps in the side created by tracking two CL riders. He scored a paid maximum at home last week so will have to be contained as much as possible.

No-one should expect another massive score from the boys in blue and gold but any win will do to add three more points to the league total improving our position at the top.

The likely line-ups will be:

Scunthorpe: Andrew Moore, Carl Wilkinson, Magnus Karlsson, Scott Richardson (?), Richard Hall, Scott James (?), Byron Bekker.

Edinburgh: William Lawson, Thomas Jonasson, Derek Sneddon, Ryan Fisher, Matthew Wethers, Andrew Tully, Aaron Summers.