LAST CHANCE FOR SILVERWARE

NEWS Tuesday 2nd October 2007, 8:46pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs make their final bid for a trophy this weekend, starting on Friday when Glasgow come to Armadale in the first leg of the Scottish Cup.

The second leg is at Ashfield on Sunday. With Monarchs missing three riders ? Andrew Tully and Daniele Tessari (injured) plus Kalle Katajisto (returned home), they call in Newcastle's Paul Clews and Redcar's Dan Giffard for Friday's first leg, with rider replacement operating for Tully.

TEAMS FOR THE SCOTTISH CUP FIRST LEG MATCH AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 5th OCTOBER (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: George Stancl, Derek Sneddon (capt.), Kaj Laukkanen, rider replacement for Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Daniel Giffard, Paul Clews.

GLASGOW FSM OUTDOOR ADVERTISING TIGERS: Craig Watson, David McAllan, James Grieves (subject to confirmation), Robert Ksiezak, Trent Leverington, Michael Coles, Lee Dicken.

THE SCOTTISH CUP: The Scottish Cup was first contested in 1951 by the four Scottish teams of the time, Edinburgh Glasgow, Ashfield and Motherwell.

Edinburgh Monarchs beat Glasgow Tigers in that first final, which featured Tigers' Tommy Miller and Monarchs' Jack Young, who won the World Championship that year.

No World Champions in the lineup these days but we can always hope! The current holders are Monarchs, possibly surprise winners in 2006.

DOUBLE HEADER ON SUNDAY: The second leg of the Scottish Cup on Sunday is part of a double header meeting at Ashfield.

Tigers' Young Shield second leg match against Redcar is the first match, starting at 2pm.

Edinburgh supporters can obviously attend that, but should any Monarchs' fans wish to attend only their match they will be able to enter the stadium when that starts for normal admission prices. This is a generous gesture by Tigers' bosses.

The Monarchs' match should commence some time between 3.30 and 4pm.

PARKER OUT: Glasgow captain and no. 1 Shane Parker will not race again this season, Tigers have announced, and on Friday his place is expected to be taken by Redcar's James Grieves.

Parker crashed with Grieves when Redcar rode at Ashfield recently. His absence is a blow for his team but his average allows a wide choice of guest replacements.

SPONSORS ON FRIDAY: Regular sponsors Keyline Broxburn have stepped in to sponsor the final match of the Armadale season on Friday night.

TIGERS HAVE BEEN TOP SCOTS: There is no doubt that Glasgow have had a better year than Edinburgh in 2007, and they are in the Young Shield while Monarchs are not.

But the Scottish Cup gives both teams the chance of striking a late blow, as Monarchs did last year when they shocked the Tigers home and away.

Tigers expect to track James Grieves in place of Shane Parker, and also hope that Craig Watson will recover from injury to take his place.

The other Tigers, of course, know Armadale as well as any track, and McAllan, Coles and Ksiezak are all ex-Monarchs' riders.

P.L.R.C. LAST SUNDAY: Kaj Laukkanen gave a good account of himself representing the Scotwaste Monarchs in the Premier League Riders' Championship at Swindon.

He scored 7 but only completed 3 races, suffering a blown engine in his third heat (when leading eventual winner James Wright), then touching the tapes in his final ride when a win would have taken him through to the semi-final.

Kaj said ?I was really really unlucky that my engine exploded in my third race.

?I used another engine in my next race which was OK but I don't think it would have been good enough for the final. But it was a shame that I was excluded in my last race!

?I was making some changes to the bike, then the two minutes was on and someone said I was due out ? maybe when I got on the track I was a little bit nervous because I was late out and just beat the two minutes. It was the first time in 2 years that I have touched the tapes!

?I had already led Wright, and Holder and Woffinden and I didn't think there was anyone in my last heat that I couldn't beat.

?But things like that happened, though I was disappointed afterwards. Now I will concentrate on the last two meetings and beating Glasgow if we can.?

LAST WEEK'S MEETING: The Scotwaste Monarchs took on Finland and won the match 49-43. This was the first time a Finnish team had ridden in a 7-man team event in the UK.