Edinburgh Monarchs v Workington Comets

It was expected that Workington would push the Scotwaste Monarchs close, but it didn?t work out that way as even their heat leaders ran out of steam.

They had three of the first six race winners, but only managed one more as messers Tully, Fisher and Wethers took control of the match with strong support from all the other home men.

Things didn?t start well. Aaron Summers made a good start in heat 1, turned left and bumped against Kevin Doolan who had come across from gate 4. They collided about a yard from the white line. It?s hard to understand how that makes it the fault of the man on the inside, but Aaron was out.

Doolan won the rerun from the chasing Fisher and we were two down. That was quickly reversed as Sean Stoddart raced off with heat 2, backed by Michal Rajkowski who seemed content to stay just in front of the opposition.

There was another crash in heat 3 as Adrian Rymel forgot whatever he knew about riding Armadale and swept into the second bend fence with Jonasson outside him. Thomas had made a good start but he was never quite right after that.

Luke Priest actually led the rerun till Tully cut through for his first win.

There was yet another stoppage in heat 4 when Richard Lawson ran into the back of Sean Stoddart who had locked up a bit. As with Summers, the Lawson exclusion was harsh and an all 4 decision would have been more sensible.

We were now at 8:20 on a cold night with 3 heats completed. Thankfully things speeded up after that. Andre Compton blasted round Matthew to win a rerun heat 4 (after an exclusion for Richard Lawson for running into Sean), so we were just 14-10 ahead with a close match in prospect.

Doolan led heat 5 with Tully chasing, and it only took a slight error by the Stars? no. 1 on the second bend of lap two to give Andrew his chance to race past and win by a large margin.

The outside line on the first bend was again the route to the front for Andre Compton in heat 6, and although he put in his usual effort Ryan Fisher could not find a way past.

We were still only six up, but we extended that in the next one as Matthew raced away from Rymel and Michal produced an excellent move to come through as well.

Comets were at TR level, but heat 8 wasn?t the place to use the first one. It was a predictable 5-1 to Monarchs, so Compton took the first TR in heat 9. The first corner was hotly contested but the strongest-willed was Andrew Tully who forced his way to the front, nullifying the double points ride.

The Fisher/Summers pair had no problems in heat 10 as we pushed our score out of sight. Rymel continued to struggle and slid off for no obvious reason.

Matthew and Michal headed heat 11 with Doolan pressing, and eventually Matthew realised he had to move ahead and make sure of the win. Another 4-4 left us with a 44-26 lead, and both TRs used.

Heat 12 wasn?t so clever, none of the riders being in great form. Rymel took a win this time with Thomas pressing, generally on the outside line, and Priest easily beating Sean who lost ground early on.

However Fisher and Wethers got us back on the winning trail with 5 points from an unfinished heat 13, stopped when Doolan tumbled going in to the first corner of lap four.

Compton was the rider replacement in heat 14, and he led from Rajkowski putting Tully?s maximum in doubt. However Andre made a mess of the second bend on lap two, and while Michal moved for the inside gap, it was Andrew who was more decisive and flew past.

Andrew could have protected his maximum but he came out for the final heat, and with a devastating second bend he took control. Ryan Fisher rode an excellent heat to slot between Tully and Compton and took the final total to a remarkable 60.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Andrew Tully,

Edinburgh Monarchs v Workington Comets

Workington are the visitors to the Dale on Friday night but just how many of the Comets will be riding following injuries in the last week to Charles Wright at Berwick last Saturday and to John Branney at home to the Bandits last Monday?

Both Wright and Branney are due to miss the Comets' visit to Redcar on Thursday night. As a result they will be using Rider Replacement for Wright and guest, Jerran Hart (Scunthorpe), for John Branney. Only the two reserves plus one ride for Andre Compton are available to take the R/R rides should neither Wright nor Branney have recovered for Friday night. Luke Priest hasn't ridden at Armadale since 2006 when he only managed 1+1 from 4 rides while Richard Lawson, son of former Glasgow star Steve Lawson, has still to make his first appearance at Armadale in official fixtures although he has looked very impressive for a Premier League newcomer in such a short space of time. It would therefore be surprising if either of the Comets' reserves were to make significant contributions to the visitors' score.

Charles Wright would be the bigger miss for the Comets since he has some Armadale form in past years but John Branney has failed to ignite round Armadale even as a reserve. The latter is now in the main body of the team at number 2.. How the bottom four (or three as the case may be) score will go a long way to deciding just how well the Comets fare. There can be no disputing the quality of their top three ? Kevin Doolan, Adrian Rymel and Andre Compton although Compton, whose brief end of season retiral, has not turned in too many double figure scores since he replaced Adam Roynon in the Workington line up.

Having made a good start in the defence of the Premier Trophy, the Monarchs must keep winning by more than six points to continue to pick up three league points from their home matches. This match looks likely to be the one which provides the biggest challenge in the group stage. A lot of pressure is on our top five to prevent the visiting big guns from running riot. With Ryan Fisher in such good form these days they will have difficulty in doing so and, with Aaron Summers, Andrew Tully and Matthew Wethers more than capable of producing race wins, the team should manage to take all three points but it will take a supreme effort from them to make sure that they do.

Thomas H Jonasson has yet to look dominant at home but with the passing of each meeting he gets more and more experience of the track. Sharp gating on Friday by the young Swede would give us two strong pairings at 1and 2 and at 3 and 4. Michal Rajkowski has been fantastic so far and his strong gating may well be a problem too many for the visitors to solve. Surely this is a match which could kick start Sean Stoddart's season too. Sean had one excellent race last week before disappearing from sight but against such an unimpressive bottom four he should be able to get among the points this week.

As always may the better team win with the hope that all riders come through the match unscathed.

Teams: Edinburgh: Ryan Fisher, Aaron Summers, Thomas H Jonasson, Matthew Wethers (captain), Michal Rajkowski and Sean Stoddart.

Workington: Kevin Doolan (captain), John Branney (or guest), Adrian Rymel, Charles Wright (or R/R), Andre Compton, Luke Priest, Richard Lawson.