Edinburgh Monarchs v Isle of Wight Islanders

PREVIEW Tuesday 6th May 2008, 12:00pm

by Dennis Wallace

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It?s back to Premier League business on Friday night as the Isle of Wight head north to Armadale, a track at which they have never won.

They don?t look like winning this one either although, once again, we won?t get to see our full team on track. There again neither will the Islanders.

With William Lawson and Thomas Jonasson on their travels again we have Tomas Topinka of King?s Lynn spearheading the side at number 1 while Thomas Jonasson has been moved notionally to number 4 for this match to partner Derek Sneddon. That well known team man, Reidar Replacement, will again be tracked instead of Thomas. As usual Matthew, Ryan, Andrew and Aaron will be eligible for the R/R rides.

King?s Lynn will be without Paul Fry who is still recovering from his leg injuries in the much publicised recent smash at Berwick. They will use R/R for Paul which is unlikely to be too much of a handicap given Paul?s rather unimpressive performances round the Dale in the past. They will also have a guest for James Holder who will apparently need an operation on his hand injury. At the time of writing there is no news on whom they have selected as guest to stand in for him.

Until last year the Isle of Wight had never managed more than 35 points at Armadale. Last year though they reached the giddy heights of 42 points in a ten point defeat. On that occasion they had Chris Holder in their side and he contributed 17 of their points. Chris has moved on to higher things with Poole in the Elite League so the Islanders don?t have quite the same top end strength this year.

From last year?s side, five of the visitors who took part in last year?s match are programmed to ride on Friday ? Cory Gathercole, Jason Bunyan, Krzysztof Stojanowski, Glen Phillips and Andrew Bargh. Their other two riders are Paul Fry and James Holder, elder brother of Chris, neither of whom will be riding. So the only other team member will be the guest replacement at reserve.

In last year?s match Gathercole, Bunyan, Stojanowski, Phillips and Bargh scored 25 points between them but they?ll need a lot more than that to get anywhere near the Monarchs in this year?s fixture. The Islanders probably relish the trip to Armadale much the same as we do the trip to the Isle of Wight (from a result perspective at least). Apart from Chris Holder, Jason Bunyan was the only Islander to win a heat last year and it is not out of the question that the same won?t be said after Friday?s meeting.

It would not be too wise to dwell too much on how things went last year though because the Islanders have proven to be a fair side this year. Cory Gathercole is a vastly improved rider to the one we saw last year now that he has had a full season at Premier League level behind him. Glen Phillips has also shown some excellent form this year and has challenged Jason Bunyan as the Islanders? top man. As for the others ? I expect it will be business as usual.

Likely line-ups:

Edinburgh: Tomas Topinka (G), Ryan Fisher, Derek Sneddon, Thomas Jonasson (R/R), Matthew Wethers, Andrew Tully, Aaron Summers

Isle of Wight: Jason Bunyan, Corey Gathercole, Glen Phillips, Paul Fry (R/R), Krzysztof Stojanowski, Andrew Bargh, (James Holder) Guest.

May the better team win.