Dethroned Not Disgraced - A Season Review

NEWS Thursday 1st December 2016, 4:31pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

With the leaves now all but gone from the trees and team building well under way for 2017 this seems as good as ever a time to look back at the 2016 season.

I will over the next however many hundred words give an overview of how the team performed but that can be picked up from the stats. So I will try mainly to give a greater insight into what the thoughts were of the people involved in Edinburgh Speedway. With input from directorship level right through to the fan on the terrace giving their insight as much as possible.

Going into 2016 we all know how hard it was going to be to maintain the level of performance we had shown in recent years. We had performed a minor miracle in retaining our League and League Cup trophies from the all conquering 2014 septet and with further weakening of the team forthcoming we all knew we had a battle on our hands to match these exploits. The story is taken up by club director Mike Hunter ‘Some years the team falls into place, e.g. 2003, 2008, other years it is hard work but we do find the men we want (e.g. 2014) and the third category of winters is ones where we finish up with an awkward gap in the team.

That happened in 2004 when we signed Gary Phelps for a 4-point gap, and again this season. We had just over 6 after bringing back Sam, Erik, Kevin and Max plus Ryan, and the 3-pointer. It would have been perfect for Jozsef Tabaka. Unfortunately we were a year too late with Jozsef who was settled with job and family and wanted to ride nearer home. We decided to go for a new Aussie and picked Jye Etheridge who didn’t seem to ride a great deal but who did well enough when he did ride.’

This view was backed up by fellow director Douglas Newlands ‘As usual, it’s never easy trying to put together an exciting and effective team and keeping within the points limit. Life without Craig Cook was never going to be easy as the team dynamics changed, but we were lucky to have a solid No.1 in Sam and with Kevin and then Ryan as back up heat leaders, plus an expected average increase from Erik, things were knitting together well. The tail end of the team posed more problems with Rob Branford not being eligible, however the signing of Dan Bewley at the Practice day proved a clever move.’

This had been one of the most difficult team building efforts in recent years for the promoters and with 7 days left to go till tapes up we were still shy the 7th man to complete the line-up. The main difficulty was the introduction of a mandatory maximum 3 point average British reserve, the thinking behind this rule being to encourage younger Brits into team slots. The flipside meant that we had to choose between Max and Rob Branford for one reserve slot when we had hoped to use both. It could be argued that the very purpose of this rule was negated by this as a former British Under-21 champion was left sitting on the sidelines at seasons start.

It was an open secret after the introduction of this rule that the Monarchs had hoped to use club asset Mitchell Davey. However delay upon delay meant his British passport was not forthcoming and so we went with an open competition at press and practice for riders to try out for the last slot. The winner of course as we all know now a recommendation by Craig Cook in young Cumbrian Dan Bewley. Dan freely admitted this came as a surprise to him stating ‘I didn’t even plan to ride in the Premier League.’

So we were all set to go for the start of the season with optimism still high in some quarters on the terraces with others taking a more pragmatic view. ‘Well known’ fan Chris Black had high hopes ‘My hopes for the season were relatively high. Although I know we can't expect to win all the time I felt we tracked a solid 5 riders who all had the potential to up their averages and up them well. Bewley and Jye, would then be allowed time to settle into the team. I felt at the start of the year this team wouldn't have been far away from a trophy’

These views were tempered slightly by the likes of Garry Dickson who celebrated his 40th season following the Monarchs this year. ‘Whilst it was great to be spoilt with success in 2014 & 2015, I expected the bubble to burst in 2016. The loss of Craig Cook and Justin Sedgmen was going to be a massive one and we waited to see what rabbits the promotion would pull out the hat. The team that was revealed was not the strongest in the league for me but they finished as I expected they would – in the playoffs. I hoped that Masters would take over Cook’s mantle, Fisher to ‘do a Wolbert’ and recapture something like the form when he was last a Monarch. Wolbert I didn’t think would have as good a season as last and I was looking forward to seeing Erik Riss show his class in his second season. Jye Etheridge was a gamble; coupled with Clegg and a rookie at No 7 we had a fair tail which needed one or more to up their averages significantly if we were to be successful. ‘

So we had our team in place, fans expectations varied (don’t they always) but most agreed that we should be competitive again and the Speedway Star annual preview edition had us predicted 5th by the correspondents and club officials and 3rd in the eyes of opposition fans.

We were all revved up for the start of a new season and what a start it was due to be. Due to some acrimony between the two promotions (which thankfully mostly appears to be in the past) the traditional curtain raising ‘Spring Trophy’ competition against Glasgow had been ditched but what a replacement we had lined up! A visit by quite possibly the most famous team in world speedway - the Belle Vue Aces. The excitement was doubled by the makeup of the Aces line-up which would have no fewer than 3 former league winning Monarchs in Craig Cook, Stevie Worrall and Max Fricke all returning to Armadale.

As was to become the story of the year though the excitement was to be dashed by the weather in the first of an unprecedented 9 rain offs at the Dale over the course of the season. I will try and not dwell on the rain offs too much over the course of this review but sadly it may become somewhat of a recurring theme.

This meant it was straight into League Cup action and unfortunately it has to be said our hopes of completing a hat trick of wins in this event was very short lived. A restructure to smaller groups with one qualifying place in each meant every point was vital. A heavy 56-37 defeat at Ashfield and an even more disappointing home reverse 44-46 to Berwick within 5 days meant theoretically we needed snookers to progress. While we managed to get revenge against the Bandits 48-42 at Shielfield our fate was sealed by the time we raced our final group fixture, a narrow 46-43 victory over the already progressed Tigers.

The form of our tail end was causing a little concern as Jye and Dan were understandably struggling if showing flashes of potential. Max as sadly became a bit of a habit was exciting to watch and racking up points at home but seemingly incapable of getting over the mental block away from the Dale. The form of our top end was matching expectations with Sam leading the way being beaten only 3 times over the 4 matches and being backed up by Kevin, Ryan (none more so than an imperious max at Berwick) and Erik.

With the League Cup out of the way it was on to League business and the hope all along would be that we would hold our own at home picking up the odd point here and there on the road until our new boys found their feet as the season progressed. This looked to be taking shape as we managed narrow if not convincing home wins against Workington and Newcastle before the end of May. These results came alongside a heavy defeat at Workington and narrow defeats at Ipswich and Rye House in both of which we picked up the consolation point. The 3 point defeat at Ipswich was galling as on another night we could have come home with a win. A controversial heat 15 decision to allow Danny King’s jumped start and rider replacement only scoring 1 point in the absence of Erik being the contributing factors.

We had also comfortably taken care of Plymouth in the KO Cup with our most complete performance to date. A resounding 54-36 victory at home the highlight of which being Dan’s first paid victory in Monarchs colours the ride being what Dan has called himself his highlight of the season being followed by a professional performance going down by 5 away. This putting us on course for a tie against our nearest and dearest from through the west in the quarter finals.

We also then had the enjoyment of hosting Ryan’s testimonial in what was to turn out to be his last season in the sport. A thoroughly entertaining night with an eclectic field was fitting for a man who always put his all into every performance he ever made for any team he raced for and who was one of the sports true entertainers.

One thing that was becoming clear at this point was that Jye Etheridge was not progressing as hoped. A victim of a new rule meaning he would not get a spell at reserve and a lack of consistent home fixtures (we had only ridden 4 matches as a team at Armadale by this stage) meant that Jye was not getting to the stage he believes he has the talent to be at and that the Monarchs required if we were to be legitimate challengers. There was also an unfortunate headline in the Evening News where Jye was labelled the worst ever newcomer to the Monarchs (despite the fact this was never said by the promotion) this all meant his time was probably coming to an end. Club director Mike Hunter confirming ‘Like everyone else he was unlucky with the weather but being honest, Jye never looked the part before or after we dropped him from the team.’ A move had to be made and this was to come at the beginning of June with the introduction of Mark Riss to the team in Jye’s place. Mark had been touted as the hotter speedway prospect of the two brothers originally and as we all knew just what Erik was capable of we were all looking forward to seeing Mark join the line-up.

Unfortunately the coming spell was to be the worst of the season for weather and the team were only to see 4 home matches over the ‘summer’ months of June and July. When we did beat the weather we were holding our own. Keeping our unbeaten home league run going despatching Ipswich, Berwick, Scunthorpe and Sheffield and the introduction of Mark and progression of Dan meant we were now looking more comfortable at home. In fact the increase in points scoring by Dan was to be a real boon for the Monarchs as the season progressed.

Away from the Dale we were undoubtedly competitive if a bit of a mixed bag at times. A 9 point defeat at Plymouth and 12 point defeat at Glasgow in a highly entertaining televised match coupled with a failure to repeat our League Cup success at Berwick going down 50-40 meant we had taken only 2 points from 6 away matches as the calendar turned into July and this alongside the lack of home matches meant we were sitting outside of the playoff positions looking in.

This was to change in the space of a tremendous 4 day spell though as firstly we took a 48-45 victory at Redcar even though we had fallen behind 10-2 after only 2 heats. We then backed this up taking a 45-44 victory in a truly pulsating match at Scunthorpe. This second victory was not without controversy as Scunthorpe raised an objection to us using Mitchell Davey in place of missing Dan Bewley. Mitch put in a tremendous effort scoring paid 6 from 3 rides in what was his first match at this level in over 2 years. The BSPA ruled in our favour much to the chagrin of vice chairman Rob Godfrey and our victory stood. Unfortunately we could not maintain this away form into the KO Cup and a gutless 54-30 defeat at Glasgow in the first leg has to stand as probably our second worst performance of the season.

We were now into August and with catch up to play on the rivals round about us both in terms of points and matches to race meant a busy spell was ahead.

One man who this didn’t seem to faze and who was turning heads everywhere he went by this point was our hotshot reserve Dan Bewley. Dan was flying everywhere he went and his low average meant he was guesting all over the place as well as piling up the points for the Monarchs. Paid 17 by Dan and Max was vital in maintaining our home record as we scraped past Rye House 45-44. This was just to be a precursor to what was to come though and in an unbelievable performance for someone who had never seen the place before, Dan rolled to 10+2 as we blitzed the Peterborough Panthers 52-39 at the East of England Showground. There was to be no let up as he produced performances that garnered rave reviews in our defeats at Somerset and Sheffield (where we did at least manage a point) as well as at Armadale as we defeated Glasgow 48-41 albeit in vain as we were knocked out of the KO Cup.

The form of Dan was many supporters highlight of the season none more so than Aisha Abdulai who commented ‘The biggest highlight for me was seeing how much Dan came on; he is definitely one to watch for the future. I think he will do really well in the sport!’

In what was to be a defining moment in the Monarchs season this run was literally to come crashing to an end on the 28th of August away at Newcastle. Dan was having perhaps his finest performance in the Blue and Gold surpassing even his performances at Peterborough and Sheffield as he raced to 10 from his first 4 rides taking the scalp of Stevie Worrall in the process. This meant we were only 2 down in a match we had expected a heavy defeat minus Erik and Ryan. A rider replacement ride replacing Ryan who was out nursing a broken foot was to come in heat 11 but a pile up coming out of the second bend was to end his night and as it turned out his season with a severe concussion. This was to be a blow that the Monarchs could not recover from as Dan had been outscoring his average greatly match on match for the last 4 to 6 weeks leading up to this and many including promoter John Campbell felt this cost us any chance of the league hat trick.

For all of this Dan still graciously replied to some questions for this review and thanks Edinburgh for taking a gamble on him this year in a year he admitted he had no plans to ride in the PL. He was delighted with how his season progressed and stated the biggest disappointment he had this year was not being able to take his place in our team and help us in t he playoffs. I’m sure we will all look on in interest to see how Dan’s career progresses should that be with the Blue and Gold or elsewhere.

We were now into September and with a mid September cut-off for fixtures to count towards the Playoffs we had a race against time to complete our fixtures. Newcastle had been the last away league fixture in our schedule but we still had 5 home fixtures to run. While the points we had picked up at Peterborough, Sheffield and Newcastle meant we should be ok we could not afford any home slip ups and the constant threat of poor weather costing us more fixtures before the cut-off was a concern. We started with an always unpopular to run double header taking maximum points against a woeful Redcar team who were the worst visitors in recent memory at Armadale and Plymouth in a match curtailed by the curfew.

This meant we were secured a playoff berth this being a good thing as once again we lost another match to the weather against Glasgow on the 9th of September. We finished our pre cut-off fixtures by defeating champions elect Somerset 50-43 and so it was onto the Playoffs.

By this point all of the major shared events at PL level had also been run with the Monarchs acquitting themselves well. 2nd place to home duo Somerset at the Pairs was a great achievement with some of the rides of the night coming from Sam and Ryan. 2nd place in our Fours semi to a solid Berwick outfit in what was an outstanding two days of speedway and then to finish it off Sam just being pipped to the PLRC - passed in the final by home man Simon Stead.

Our Playoff seeding of 4th meant we were up against Ipswich Witches who had finished 5th and unfortunately for us were in the finest form of their season. I mentioned earlier that our defeat at Glasgow in the away leg of the KO Cup quarter final was our 2nd worst performance of the season. Well that was beaten by our performance at Ipswich after running them so close earlier in the season we absolutely capitulated and were trounced 58-32in a match that only Mark and guest reserve Ben Hopwood could take any more than a passing grade from. This made the return leg a formality and despite a strong start which saw us 12 up after 6 heats a back breaking 1-5 in heat 7 against Kevin and Max closed the coffin and a further heat 11 1-5 against the same ineffective pairing was the final nail in that coffin and our reign as champions was over.

Sandwiched between the two Ipswich fixtures was a resounding home victory over a Peterborough line-up that bore little resemblance to their normal line-up in a match that was only noteworthy for the return of Cookie to the Dale.

With our Playoff hopes done we only had one thing left to race for and that was an unbeaten home league season as welcomed Glasgow through for the final home match of the season. Further disaster was to strike as with the riders on parade a floodlight failure meant the match had to be called off. This coming on the back of all the rain offs was a bitter pill to swallow for the club who by this point just wanted to see the back of 2016.

The fixture was rearranged for a fortnight later when a patchwork Monarchs outfit missing Sam who was back in Oz riding in the GP, Ryan who had already booked his flights to return to his family prior to the lights going out on the planned staging and Dan and Max to injury meant we were roundly dismantled by a much sharper visiting Tigers outfit.

So with that the curtains came down on the 2016 season one that will be remembered for both the right and wrong reasons. The season had some highlights including some personal highlights for Monarchs riders. Sam was a league winner in Denmark, 2nd in the PLRC and competed once again in his home GP. Erik captured his second World Longtrack Championship a remarkable achievement for one so young and Max was British Under-19 Champ alongside his NLRC triumph - two tremendous achievements.

Other highlights for the fans included for Caroline Watson seeing the younger riders progressing Long-time fan and Monarchs Chatzone operator Caroline commenting ‘My highlight was seeing Erik progressing once again, adding nearly 1.5 points to his average. Also witnessing the rise of Dan Bewley and seeing Mark progress in the latter stages of the season.’

These thoughts were echoed by Laraine Wells who felt ‘the team proved to be every bit better than my expectations.’

The major down point of the season was of course the weather which adding on the floodlight failure saw 10 matches postponed before a wheel was turned. The strain this put on the club was unimaginable. It is not an exaggeration to say that there was a spell where this could have meant the end of the Monarchs. Club director Douglas Newlands stating ‘Living 75 miles away from Armadale, I often dreaded the journey and what I would find at the other end! It did become depressing – not just with the number of rain offs, but also the number of rain-affected meetings which spoiled everyone’s enjoyment. The team lost consistency which didn’t help our play off ambitions, though we made them in the end’

This view was backed up by fellow director Mike Hunter ‘Everyone felt it; it was dreadfully dispiriting and very hard to build up momentum and enthusiasm. And of course financially, without all the fundraising we would have been finished. It’s still a major concern that so much extra financing is required.’

Of course as Mike mentioned if there was a positive to be taken from the number of postponements it was the way in which the Edinburgh Monarchs speedway family responded through the Monarchs Fans Trust, The Monarchs 100, the Grand Draw, the Half Cut Draw , various fan groups and other individual fundraising from the likes of Scott Wilson and Bob Miller among others. It was this kinship that was the highlight of the season for Johnny Beskow ‘I’ll remember the 2016 season for the bond between the supporters and promotion; we’re all passionate about the club. We want to see a bright future for the Monarchs.’ Laraine again backed this view up thanking the fans trust for their efforts and ‘hoping they can continue with the level of support they currently provide.’

So moving onto 2017 what do the Monarchs fans expect and what can they hope for?

Scott Girdwood is hoping we get back to seeing success again ‘Hopefully we can get back to where we belong; top of the league and winning trophies with some new and fresh blood into the team to get us there.’

Craig J Cusack is looking for ‘another competitive team, following our riders home and abroad and big but... hopefully securing the long term future of the Monarchs.’

Jimmy Scott takes a different tact as he looks to 2017 hoping for ‘Better weather, supporters continuing to back our promotion team, the continuing work that Doc, Ronnie, George and others do on the track and show that it’s honest hard work and support that makes a club successful.’

I’ll leave the last work to Mike Hunter who when asked what we can expect in 2017 simply states ‘Ha! Anyone who knows what to expect in speedway is likely to be proved wrong. I’m sure we will try very hard indeed to get things right, that’s all I can predict.’