GREETINGS FROM UNCLE ‘B’ (LXIII)

NEWS Tuesday 10th June 2014, 8:45pm

by Brian Gray

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It's not often we get pleasant (notice I didn't say warm and sunny) weather two Fridays in a row at Armadale for the Speedway but when we do it doesn't half cheer folk up!

Almost everyone was smiling and in a good mood as they came in and stopped for a quick chat with me. Aye, even the one or two grumpy ones!! All the talk these days seems to be about our amazing run of unbeaten matches and when (whisper it) it will end! Now, let me see. Before the Sheffield match it was 16 and, of course, after the easy demolition of the tigers it was 17. I was a bit disappointed about the Sheffield performance as I was looking forward to seeing Simon Stead in full flow. It's incredible how he hangs off the bike. Anyhow, that's a huge lead to take for the second leg on the 19th. If you're going down then hopefully I'll see you. I'm undecide if some of the teams we've met this year are very average or if it's the Mighty Monarchs who are simply sublime!

I'd like to apologize for the problem with the lights at the back of the stand last week and would thank the gentleman who drew my attention to it. It appears that they are now on a different switch but it didn't take me long to find out where it is and get the them on! I had a bit of running about to do on Friday and went home with sore feet! After the bit of fun on the centre green with the Zebra, I can now add the title of Zoo Keeper to my speedway C.V.! Goodness knows what will turn up next! You will have noticed that the grass on the centre green has been trimmed and mown this last couple of weeks and the white lines clearly painted. Did you notice the new rubbish bins that the landlords have installed? All these small improvements help to make our track worthy of being the home to a winning side!

A quick glance at the fixture list tells me we have Plymouth visiting this week. Their number one, Ben Barker, is in full flow just now and I know you will all make him feel welcome. I hope Kalle Katajisto's wrist injury sustained last Friday doesn't prevent him from riding at Redcar and Armadale this week, although I hear that he rode in Finland on Saturday so should be ok. He still has lots of fans in Scotland who would be sad if he isn't. Then on Saturday we nip down to Workington for the League match with the Comets. You'll recall we beat them by seven points in the League Cup back in April with four of our riders scoring double points. I wonder if we can do it again? They would certainly like to be the first club to lower our colours this season!

So, until Friday my friends, be good to each other and take care.

Uncle ‘B’