Scunthorpe take a healthy lead

Things did not go at all to plan for the Stellar Monarchs in the BSN Series semi final tonight in spite of an opening heat 5-1. They enjoyed little luck and lost Justin Sedgmen in a nasty crash in his third heat, but there can be no arguments that Scunthorpe gave a very good display and deserved their victory. They were solid throughout their team.

Monarchs no. 1 Josh Pickering said after the match "I'm very disappointed, it's not what I expected and it's not what I wanted. I'm quite annoyed to be honest.

"We needed more race wins, we didn't have enough heat winners and when we did win, it was 3-3s. We lost Sedgy which is no good.

"The track staff did incredibly well to get the match on but then we're riding on a track which is not what we are used to again. Sometimes it's easier for an away team to just ride the track as it is than for the home side to chase the setup."

It all started well with the opening race 5-1 which was very comfortable, but that was the last time Monarchs were ahead. Scorpions' excellent reserves levelled up, and though Castagna and Sedgmen took the next two heats, the scores were still level.

Scunthorpe went ahead as Palm Toft won heat 5, and there was fun and games after heat 6 as Josh Pickering was forced wide while trying an outside pass on Kyle Howarth, and let Kyle know he though he had overdone it a bit.

Sedgmen won heat 7 and Thomson heat 8, with Connor Coles fighting a great battle against the visiting pair in the latter race before being relegated to the back.

After two pointless rides, Lasse Fredriksen produced a battling win in heat 9 over Howarth, even though he had come down heavily in the first running of the heat.

Monarchs were still two points down after heat 10 though, and things really turned sour in heat 11 as Sedgmen lifted down the back straight and clipped Connor Mountain's machine before spinning into the fence. After lengthy treatment he did rise but had to pull out of the match with an arm and hand injury – bad enough but the severity of the crash suggested it might have been worse.

With Sedgmen out of the match Monarchs' hopes were gone in truth, though they did take an advantage in an unusual heat 12. First Ablitt was excluded after a first bend crash, then Fredriksen was ruled out perhaps controversially as Lambert came through inside him after lifting down the back straight.

Connor Coles who was pointless at that stage rode a tenacious race to beat Lambert in the rerun. Scunthorpe took a couple more 4-2s over the closing heats to run out comfortable winners with even Pickering unable to find enough drive to pass, in spite of herculean efforts.

Sedgmen Back For Scunthorpe Clash

It seems like an eternity since bikes last thundered round our Armadale circuit - well for an entire 15 laps anyway.

Indeed, since the Stellar Monarchs defeated Berwick Bandits on July 26, they've lost narrowly in the corresponding clash at Shielfield; seen a trip to Ashfield postponed; another Scottish derby abandoned, this time at Armadale; and last Wednesday week, departed Glasgow's Peugeot Stadium on the wrong end of a 50-40 reversal.

That night saw a miraculous 20-point total from our no1 Josh Pickering in his seven rides. Only Chis Harris, in Heat 15, denied the Aussie what would have been the classic maximum of perfection.

Less than a fortnight after Joshie's Ashfield masterclass, he was at it again. Even though he and Paco could only manage fifth in the Championship Pairs at Oxford, the impervious Picko finished the competition's top individual top scorer with 15 points, outscoring named like Masters, Lawson, Palm Toft, Kerr and winners Redcar's Charles Wright in the process.

Now the main late-season focus turns to be the BSN Series and their semi-final with Scunthorpe, the opening leg of which takes place this Friday at Armadale (the return at the Eddie Wright Arena is scheduled for Friday September 6th)

An intriguing pair of tussles looks likely, earlier in the season the Monarchs took the aggregate bonus point against this week's visitors but that all goes for nought when the tapes go up on heat one tonight and the Scorpions will be buoyed by having a full 1-7 after Michael Palm Toft and Luke Harrison missed the league encounter.

If David Howe's men are happy to head north with a full 1-7 in place then the Monarchs are even more so given the news that Justin Sedgmen is fit to return, a month or so out the saddle for Sedgy has been hard to cover for the Blue and Gold and it is great to see him back in the line-up as the Aussie pair of Sedgmen and Pickering will look to lead the way once again.

As big a lead as possible is the aim for the Monarchs prior to the second leg in a couple of weeks as the Armadale men look to take the next step to end a trophyless draught that has gone on to long for anyone of a Blue and Gold persuasion's liking.