Robert Branford Image Credit: Jack Cupido

ROB BRANFORD’S A MONARCH

NEWS Sunday 7th December 2014, 11:37am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The fourth rider to be announced for the Scotwaste Monarchs’ defence of their trophies in 2015 is 21 year old Robert Branford, son of an ex-Monarch and also a former British Under-21 Champion.

Rob has ridden for several UK clubs including Redcar, Leicester and Berwick. His form in Australia in recent weeks has been impressive, and he recently won the Victorian Under-21 Championship in front of no less than Max Fricke.

Rob missed the 2014 UK season but feels he will come back better for the rest. “I had a year off last season, my last meeting was actually at Edinburgh when I had a bit of a tangle on the first corner with Claus Vissing and broke my scaphoid. I had already had a crash and I wrote my two bikes off in that meeting!

“So I thought it was best to have a year off and stay at home, get ahead of things and get some money saved up, that was the main thing.

“I’ve had the year off to work and I’m happy with that, it’s made me a lot hungrier. I almost needed the year off to prove to myself that this is what I wanted to do, I want to be a speedway rider. It’s made me miss it like crazy.”

Robert has ridden well at Armadale before with a best performance of 9+2 for Leicester in June 2013.

He said “I do like the small tracks, the technical tracks. The thing I like about Edinburgh is they’ve got a good guy doing the track, they prepare it consistently every week. You can get a good home track advantage there, once you can get around the place and have got the setup right.

“That’s what really appealed to me, I think it’s a track that I can go well at consistently every week. I’ll actually look forward to riding there every Friday. Some tracks I’ve been with I dreaded the home meetings and actually looked forward to the away ones.”

Rob has of course been competing against some of the title winning Monarchs of last season and knows them well. “I was riding with Sam, Justin and Maxie last weekend. I’ve known them since junior days and it will be good to be with them in the pits, a little bit of banter and everyone wanting to do better than each other.

“They’ve had experience round there and have the knowledge to pass on to me. They are not going to hold anything back from me, they’ll help me as much as they can. I’m looking forward to it.”

In his previous UK seasons Rob has only occasionally shown the form everyone believes he is capable of, but he is confident that he will do well this time. “Since I came back from England I feel like a totally different rider. I’ve been doing a lot of practising the last two summers and I feel like I’m riding all right. I used to be a bit of a slick track rider but I’ve been practising riding the dirt and I feel I can ride tracks with dirt now, which gives you more opportunities to pass.

"My aim is to get a couple of new bikes, obviously money’s always tight but I’m not going to hold back, I’ll have good machinery for sure. I have to get every advantage that I can. I’m not doing it half hearted.

“Dad will be over for a couple of months, he doesn’t mechanic for me now, he just stands back a bit. It’s good having the old man there, he’s got a lot of knowledge and he kind of knows how to get me going. He knows my boundaries and if I’m not going as well as I can, he’ll let me know about it! You always want to go well in front of your old boy don’t you!”

Rob will team up at reserve with Max Clegg, both on 3-point averages. “I know young Max Clegg, he’s a good lad. I know him from riding in National League. Max and his dad are a good couple of boys and I think Max is going to be a good little rider.

“I know how well Edinburgh did last year and I hope I can do well for them this year. I’ll be over some time in February, a little bit before the first meeting so that I can have everything ready. I need to get a mechanic and a van organised, I want to have a good team around me to get me going well.”

Rob’s dad Darrell rode for Monarchs in 1988, and the youngster won the British title back in 2013 in his last season in the UK. Most people were surprised that he qualified for the meeting as he is usually thought of as an Aussie. As far as we can see the Branfords are the fourth father/son combination to ride for Monarchs following the Luckhursts (Reg, Jamie and Jeremy), the Collins (Les and Aidan) and the Bradys (Alastair and Ross).