Our 8-1 at Scunthorpe Image Credit: Ron MacNeill

KEY PLAYOFF AND CUP MATCHES THIS WEEK

NEWS Wednesday 3rd October 2012, 8:53am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Scotwaste Monarchs restage their home Premier Playoff match against Scunthorpe Scorpions this Friday, needing a strong performance to put themselves into contention to win the group.

Monarchs also head for Ipswich on Thursday for the first leg of their KO Cup semi final. Regrettably no. 1 Craig Cook will be out following his crash at Scunthorpe last Sunday, although it is not yet completely clear just what damage Craig has suffered. Guest replacements have still to be confirmed.

TEAMS FOR THE PREMIER PLAYOFF MATCH AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 5th October (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Guest replacement for Craig Cook, Derek Sneddon, Theo Pijper, Matthew Wethers (capt.), Andrew Tully, Jozsef Tabaka, Byron Bekker (guest).

SCUNTHORPE SCORPIONS: Josh Auty, rider replacement for Thomas Jorgensen, Kevin Doolan (guest), Ashley Birks, Nick Morris, Michael Palm Toft, Gary Irving.

PREMIER PLAYOFFS: The only match staged so far in Monarchs’ Playoff group resulted in a disappointing 59-34 defeat for Monarchs at Scunthorpe, in which they were badly hampered by the loss of Cook.

The other matches for Monarchs are:

Home v Scunthorpe 5/10

Away v Workington 13/10

Home v Workington 19/10

The absolute minimum requirement is 6 points, and that will only be enough if all teams finish on 6. Race points would then decide. An away point for anyone will be invaluable.

In the other group of 3 Somerset made a good start by taking 4 points to Newcastle’s 2 in their matches last weekend. Leicester haven’t raced yet.

Winners of the two groups meet in the final to decide the Premier League Championship.

CRAIG’S INJURY: Craig Cook likes to get on to Twitter and on that, he said shortly after his accident that he had broken a rib.

It seems that is not yet absolutely certain, though news should be available shortly.

Whatever the damage is, it will rule him out of this week’s matches.

In the week before his first injury, his scores had been 14, 13, 15, 15, 15, all from 5 rides and without TRs, which shows the kind of form he was in and how irreplaceable he is.

NO SCOTTISH CUP: Edinburgh and Glasgow have agreed that they will not stage the Scottish Cup this year.

Both teams are involved in other competitions, which means uncertainty over available dates, and the teams have in any case met eight times already this season.

NO MARCEL: German reserve Marcel Helfer, now the German Under-21 Champion (a title won last Friday), will still be missing from this week’s matches.

He is involved this week in the Bundesliga Final with his team Landshut.

EXCELLENT YOUNG TEAM: Scunthorpe scored 54 on their last visit to Armadale and 59 against Monarchs on Sunday, so it would be stating the obvious to say that they are going well.

They return to Armadale with the same side they were due to track last Friday, the only slight difference being a slight change in their averages which means that guest Doolan rather than Morris can take a rider replacement ride for Jorgensen.

The last two performances showed the Scorpions to be a team without a weak link, and it is up to Monarchs to rise to the occasion.

LAST MEETING: The Scotwaste Monarchs suffered their seventh rain-off of a depressingly wet season when the first attempt to race Scunthorpe was washed out.

NEXT MEETING: Monarchs will race their home leg in the Premier League KO Cup semi-final against Ipswich on Friday 12th October.