Edinburgh Monarchs v Kings Lynn Stars

The Scotwaste Monarchs rode well to defeat King?s Lynn but there was a feeling of frustration that the winning margin was only 13 points.

The Stars were not especially impressive though they stuck to their task and took their chances when they arose. They had only two race winners but one of them was in an 8-1 heat advantage.

Monarchs had too many last places (8) and three of them stemmed from the pivotal moment of the match, the heat 8 crash between Eklof and Summers. Prior to that Aaron had looked invincible, even when he missed the start, but his machine was damaged in what seemed a quite nasty tumble.

He was OK thankfully but had to ride Wolbert?s bike in the rerun, then suffered two engine failures at the gate in his final two rides after trying to sort out his own bike.

We can only speculate over how many points were lost in a crash which certainly seemed to be caused by the visiting reserve moving quite sharply to his right on the run to the first turn.

We started strongly as Fisher and Rajkowski took 5 points from heat 1. Ward was very close to catching the Raj at the last gasp but the ref gave our man the nod.

Aaron Summers flew to a heat 2 win in the fastest time of the night, but Byron Bekker?s attempts to overcome a bad start saw him lose ground eventually.

Andrew Tully flew through the tapes in heat 3 and was replaced by Summers. This was a fine race with Schramm initially leading, passed by the flying Summers. Sanchez pushed Wethers to the back but Matthew came back to pick off both Stars before the end for a 5-1.

Kevin Wolbert made a bad start and had to work hard to pass Graversen, then also closing on Topinka before the end of the race. Byron was tailed off again.

Tully turned in a great ride in heat 5, chasing race leader Eklof all the way before racing inside him on the final turn. Eklof had a post-race moan about the pass. Ward was at the back and kept there by Wethers.

Fisher led all the way again in heat 6 after a strong first bend, bit this time Rajkowski didn?t start well and finished pointless.

Wolbert and Summers flew to a 5-1 in heat 7 over the Stars? middle pair, the one which usually gains so many advantages. They were not on song tonight.

We were now 12 up and Sanchez came in to heat 8 on a TR. The Summers crash caused a delay, and as we eventually found out would render Aaron ineffective for the rest of the night.

Rajkowski won the heat though, restricting King?s Lynn to a 5-3.

We regained that 2 point gap as Tully beat Topinka in heat 9, and we had another excellent show from Rajkowski and Fisher in heat 10 taking 5 over Sanchez/Schramm.

That allowed the Stars to use another TR, and this time it counted. Summers stopped at the tapes, Wolbert made a poor start and Eklof and Ward combined to take the 8 points.

That put a bit of a damper on things in the home camp, and we still had another ride to give Byron who was not on song. That was in heat 12, shared and won by Tully.

Heat 13 was shared as well, won by Fisher but with Wolbert unable to find space to pass after another slow start.

When Summers stopped at the tapes again in heat 14, we were again restricted to a shared heat with Wethers winning.

We needed to extent the 9-point lead we had, and even against Topinka and Ward, we got a fairly easy 5-1 after Fisher and Tully had brilliantly carved up the first turn.

So a 13-point lead we have, and we will need the best score at King?s Lynn this season if we are to retain the Premier Trophy. The previous smallest margin is 16 ? by us.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Andrew Tully.

Edinburgh Monarchs v Kings Lynn Stars

This week the team are in the unusual position of not having ridden for some five days and now face just the one match at Armadale this Friday.

But what a match it should be as we face the first of the two finals we have reached so far this year - The Premier Trophy Final. The opposition could hardly be harder as the newly crowned league champions, King's Lynn, make their second visit to Armadale this season.

The final is decided on aggregate and, since the Stars don't seem to ride first legs at home, once again we are faced with the task of building up a sizeable lead to take to the Norfolk Arena on September 30th just as we had to do last year in the play-off final.

Perhaps it's as well that the match can be raced at a more leisurely pace this week since meetings between the sides are not noted for being fast, smooth running affairs devoid of controversy. However we hope that the visitors don't suffer the injuries they had in the Premier League match earlier in the season when they lost Darcy Ward after a race and a lap and Jan Graversen shortly after that.

It's a measure of their resilience that they recovered from these blows to lose by just a single point and become one of the two teams to have taken a point from their trip to the Dale this year. That's the sort of determination and fighting spirit we must show ourselves in what might not be the last meeting between the two sides at the West Lothian Arena before the season ends.

There's no better way to go into this match than with a full strength team riding on the crest of a wave and the Norfolk outfit will hopefully find that all their excellent away performances which took them to the league championship are a thing of the past. Newcastle showed last Sunday how to handle the Stars on the track with a twelve point victory and we should be looking to do even better.

The King's Lynn team is built round two top heat leaders, a powerful middle pairing and prolific scoring reserves. Darcy Ward came into the season on a 5.00 point assessed average and quickly made a nonsense of that with some stunning displays which has taken his average to over nine. He has only completed one race at Armadale and finished second to Aaron Summers in that. He won't remember his only visit to the track with any relish since the injury he sustained crashing into the fence in his second race kept him on the sidelines for several weeks.

The Stars other top heat leader, Tomas Topinka, is no stranger to the track ? indeed Armadale must be one of his best away tracks considering some of his porevious performances there! But recently some of his away scores have not been as good as earlier in the season. At Newcastle last Sunday he managed only four points including one race win. Ward and Topinka must not be allowed to run riot. Darcy Ward wins races on his ability rather than on his gating prowess but the opposite is the case in Tomas Topinka's case.

The 'boilerhouse' of the team has been immensely productive for the Stars this season. Chris Schramm and Emiliano Sanchez have formed a magnificent and reliable partnership as the middle pairing. Home and away this pair have rattled up maximum heat wins galore providing a stress free platform for the rest of the side. They won't have Kozza Smith this time which is some relief since he was a real thorn in the side last time. Instead they will use Rider Replacement at number 2 limited to the two reserves and Emiliano Sanchez.

The King's Lynn reserves are not now as frighteningly good as they were earlier in the season. Jan Graversen has not shown any liking for the Armadale circuit and suffered an injury last time after inspecting the fourth bend fence in some detail. Linus Eklof was sensational when he signed for the Stars following the injury to Christian Henry (remember him?). The young Swede has not seemed quite as comfortable in recent weeks however and we must keep both reserves in the doldrums.

What a week the team had last week! Confidence must be at an all time high after a superb display at Birmingham and a jaw-dropping performance at Sheffield. With six home matches over a fifteen day period, five of them in the league, producing all 15 points available the team are in the sort of form which will have the Stars worried. There is now a feeling and spirit about the team so reminiscent of last year when they did so well so hopes are high that we can see this King's Lynn side off by taking a comfortable victory leaving the Stars with it all to do in the second leg.

Surely there will be a huge crowd for this match and it's up to us all to get right behind the team with our vocal encouragement. Hopefully it will be a match to remember for all the right reasons and both teams come through the tie without injury.

The teams have been announced as follows: Edinburgh: Ryan Fisher, Michal Rajkowski, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Kevin Woelbert, Aaron Summers and Byron Bekker.

King's Lynn: Darcy Ward, Rider Replacement for Kozza Smith, Chris Schramm, Emiliano Sanchez, Tomas Topinka, Linus Eklof, Jan Graversen.