NO JOE FOR A FEW WEEKS

NEWS Saturday 15th June 2013, 9:53am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

A tough weekend for the Scotwaste Monarchs just got tougher with the news that Jozsef Tabaka has crashed again in his GP qualifier in Debrecen and suffered a broken foot.

Jozsef has told us that he was brought off by Daniel Nermark in his second ride. The prognosis is that he will be missing for three weeks.

Of course he was dumped on the track three times on Friday also and was already badly shaken about from the heat 14 incident.

At no. 5 in our averages on 5.11, Jozsef is obviously very hard to replace. He has been riding far better than that, averageing around 7 for this season alone. His rides can be taken by Derek Sneddon plus the reserves.

Of course we are also missing our no. 7, precisely the position we faced last season when Derek Sneddon and Charles Wright were out. It’s the worst possible combination in a sport in which injuries can sometimes strengthen a team’s lineup.

Theo Pijper rode in his World Longtrack yesterday and scored 6, but is having a desperate struggle with his broken ribs, and Max Fricke also took a knock on Friday but rode at Berwick yesterday, scoring 8 in a junior event.

We head for Newcastle today to do the best we can and face a difficult period ahead.