CHAMPS MOVE ON TO PLAYOFFS

NEWS Tuesday 30th September 2008, 10:00pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs, 2008 Premier League Champions and Premier Trophy winners, now face the team who were their nearest challengers in the title race, Somerset Rebels, in the Playoff Semi-Finals.

This is the competition which can lead to a tilt at an Elite League place for the winners. Somerset come to Armadale this Friday and Monarchs travel south for the second leg next Wednesday (8th). The other Playoff semi is King's Lynn v Rye House. Tomasz Piscz guests for Monarchs on Friday in place of William Lawson.

TEAMS FOR THE PREMIER PLAYOFF SEMI-FINAL AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 3rd OCTOBER (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Tomasz Piszcz (guest), rider replacement for Thomas H Jonasson, Ryan Fisher, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Derek Sneddon (captain), Aaron Summers.

SOMERSET REBELS: Jason Doyle, rider replacement for Simon Walker, Emil Kramer, Stephan Katt, Jordan Frampton, Matthias Kroger, Brent Werner.

PREMIER TROPHY ON PARADE: The team will parade the Premier Trophy which they won so brilliantly last Sunday prior to Friday's match.

They recorded a 52-41 win at Perry Barr on a night of great racing and fun while celebrating with the Brummies who played a big part in bringing the Premier League to its conclusion when they beat Somerset last Wednesday.

That meant Monarchs won the Trophy Final by a resounding 117-65 on aggregate.

Of course they will also be presented with the League Championship trophy in due course but it has yet to be decided when this will happen.

PREMIER PLAYOFFS: The winners of the Premier Playoffs will eventually race against the losers of the Elite League relegation Playoff. It is not yet known who will contest the latter but it will feature Wolverhampton against either Belle Vue or Peterborough.

SCOTTISH CUP: Amidst all this the Monarchs will also be contesting the annual Scottish Cup against Glasgow Tigers. The away leg is this Sunday (5th) at Ashfield with the return at Armadale on Friday 10th.

WORLD UNDER-21 FINAL: Monarchs' top average rider William Lawson races this Saturday in the biggest individual meeting of his career, the World Under-21 Final at Pardubice, Czech Republic. William rides at no. 16 in a field in which the favourites will be Chris Holder (Australia), Emil Saifutdinov (Russia, champion 2007), Tai Woffinden (England) and Jurica Pavlic (Croatia).

MEETING SPONSOR: Sponsoring the Playoff semi-final on Friday will be Martin Whitehead & Son, painter and decorator, of Broxburn.

TOP TWO MEET AGAIN: Monarchs hammered Somerset 66-24 on their last appearance at Armadale but it is very unlikely that there will be a similar scoreline this Friday.

Jason Doyle suffered a couple of crashes on that occasion, and he can surely be relied on to improve his score.

Rebels' prospects will depend on how much backup Doyle gets. Only Brent Werner has much of a record in West Lothian though they have other experienced riders in Kramer, Karr and Kroger, and Jordan Frampton is a fast rising young star.

Both teams will be keen to progress and prolong their season.

TEAM ORDER CHANGES: With the October averages applying, captain Derek Sneddon will ride at reserve over the final matches of the season, while nos. 1 and 3 (top two in the averages) are William Lawson and Ryan Fisher.

LAST MEETING: Monarchs beat Workington Comets 49-41 in the first leg of the KO Cup semi final. It wasn't enough because they went down 39-53 in the second leg in spite of a great fight.

NEXT MEETING: The Scotwaste Monarchs race Glasgow in the second leg of the 2008 Scottish Cup at Armadale on Friday 10th October.