TABLE-TOP TUSSLE CONTINUES

NEWS Wednesday 14th August 2013, 4:22pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It's so tight at the top of the Premier League that every point is going to count towards the final table. On Friday table-toppers Somerset come to Armadale to race the highly-placed Scotwaste Monarchs in one of the season's key fixtures.

The night before Monarchs are at Sheffield where they will also be looking for points against one of the lower sides in the League, albeit one recently strengthened and showing improvement. So there are seven league points available – how many can Monarchs get?

TEAMS FOR THE PREMIER LEAGUE MATCH AT ARMADALE ON FRIDAY 16th AUGUST (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:

SCOTWASTE MONARCHS: Craig Cook, Max Fricke, Theo Pijper, Jozsef Tabaka, Claus Vissing, Mitchell Davey, Derek Sneddon (capt.).

SOMERSET REBELS: Jason Doyle (capt.), Kyle Newman, Josh Grajczonek, Alex Davies, Nick Morris, Simon Lambert, Stefan Nielsen.

THE PREMIER LEAGUE: For this week's look at the Premier League standings let us assume that Somerset take three league points from Wednesday night's home match for them against Sheffield.

If that happens the Rebels will move onto 40 points (17 matches) with a ranking of +10 (away points gained less home points lost).

Other contenders are Workington (39, 19, +9), Redcar (38, 21, +8), Edinburgh (37, 16, +10), Newcastle (36, 17, +15), Ipswich (34, 15, +10).

Of course to analyse fully you would have to look at which matches remain for each team, and really we'll just have to wait till it all unfolds!

One team who seem to be fading are Leicester (31, 19, +1) while up and coming are Rye House (next week's visitors to Armadale – (22, 17, +1) who have a backlog of home matches.

The top six will qualify for the end-of-season Playoffs and it's not even time to assume that any team will definitely make those, though the current top five do look well placed.

SHEFFIELD THURSDAY: Monarchs won at Sheffield last season and have done better in recent years than was once the case.

The Owlerton team will be using track specialist Josh Auty at no. 1 in place of injured Simon Stead, and they have been getting good home scores recently from Adam Roynon, Ricky Wells, Andre Compton and reserve Facundo Albin.

So Monarchs will have to ride well on Thursday night to take points even though the Yorkshire side are in second bottom place in the League.

COOKIE NIGHT: On 30th August (KO Cup semi-final night) we will be holding a special event in Hospitality during which supporters can meet Craig Cook. Full details at www.edinburghmonarchs.co

MEETING SPONSORS: Sponsors of the Somerset match are the Black Bull Inn of Midcalder who will be making their annual visit and taking over the full Hospitality area at Armadale.

REBELS ON GREAT FORM: It would be fair to say that Somerset are probably the form team in the league at the moment and they will be coming north to race at Armadale, Berwick and Glasgow without any defeatist thoughts in their head.

Their heat leader trio of Jason Doyle, Josh Grajczonek and Nick Morris is probably the strongest in the league. Both Doyle and Morris also race in highly-placed Elite League teams (Birmingham and Swindon respectively) while Grajczonek has been turning out effectively recently while guesting for Poole and Belle Vue.

They are all Aussies of course, and if that wasn't enough, another Aussie Alex Davies scored a dozen points for them at Plymouth last weekend!

Kyle Newman is also going well, and if their reserves are not the strongest part of their side, they aren't weak either. Nielsen is an up-and-comer and Lambert has done well at Armadale before.

It's a major test for the Scotwaste Monarchs.

LAST MEETING: The Scotwaste Monarchs beat Sheffield 45-32 in a match abandoned at heat 13 following a spectacular crash, thankfully without many serious consequences.

NEXT MEETING: On Friday 23rd August Monarchs race Rye House Rockets, one of the most improved teams in the league, who have won six of their last seven Premier League matches.

Full Result Details