Championship Chase Begins

NEWS Wednesday 5th April 2017, 6:30pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Parsons Peebles Monarchs begin the hunt for the Championship crown this Friday as we host the Scunthorpe Scorpions at Armadale with tapes due to fly at 7.30pm

LEAGUE STRUCTURE

This will be the first of 36 matches in what is a revamped and rebranded second tier of British Speedway. The SGB Championship as it will now be known will be contested by ten teams with all facing each other home and away twice. After this is complete the top four teams will contest the end of season playoffs to see who is crowned champions.

SCUNTHORPE HEAD NORTH

The Scorpions were the team least affected by the changes to team building announced at the BSPA conference back in November being as the 1-7 that finished last season was able to be fitted in under the new rules and this septet was duly retained by the Lincolnshire outfit.

The septet is built on a strength in depth approach and while the top end of the team performed to expectations last weekend it is perhaps in the middle order and reserve berths that they will be looking for improvement this Friday.

That is not to say that Scunthorpe are to be dismissed and in fact they were only 2 points behind with as much of 11 of the 15 races complete at Glasgow last Saturday night.

Monarchs Co-Promoter Alex Harkess is not taking anything for granted ‘We have Scunthorpe here this week, and we want to make a good start to the match. That’s what it will all be about building confidence at home. A year ago we lost our first match at home to Berwick and that was just due to lack of confidence as the riders hadn’t ridden the track enough. This time they have all had a run out and done reasonably well.’

The Scorpions are led by an experienced top five with Ryan Douglas, Lewis Kerr, Michael Palm Toft, and particularly Josh Auty and Carl Wilkinson now well known and experienced at all venues in the division. On their day any one of these can be a force to be reckoned with and our top 5 will need to be on their toes to compete.

The reserves are a less little experienced at this level but Austrian Fritz Wallner is seen as a trump card and will be key to the outcome if he can score as heavily as the Scorpions will hope.

Teams for the SGB Championship match at Armadale on Friday 7th April (start time 7:30pm, gates open 6:30pm), are:

PARSONS PEEBLES MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), Josh Pickering, Erik Riss, Max Clegg, Ricky Wells, Mark Riss, Mitchell Davey.

SCUNTHORPE HENDERSON INSURANCE SCORPIONS: Ryan Douglas, Carl Wilkinson, Lewis Kerr, Michael Palm Toft, Josh Auty, Fritz Wallner, Josh Bailey.

CONTINUITY THE KEY: The Scorpions race into 2017 with the same septet that finished 2016. While this wasn’t a successful septet last year the lowering of the team building limit and improvement shown towards the end of the season has the Lincolnshire men believing that 2017 will show an uptick in on track fortunes.

All of the top 5 have had their moments around Armadale and with Fritz Wallner seen as the trump card the Parsons Peebles Monarchs will need to be sharp to make sure they do not fall to defeat particularly as this will be the first outing of the Monarchs as a team this year.

LAST MEETING: Justin Sedgmen was a popular winner of the 2017 Harrison’s Scottish Open Championship. Justin overcame fast starting Monarch Erik Riss in the final with fellow Monarch Ricky Wells then relegating the young German to third place. Rory Schein of Ipswich rounded out the finalists.

NEXT MEETING: On Friday 14th April the Parsons Peebles Monarchs face off against the Berwick Bandits in Championship action. As this is Good Friday there will ne Easter goodies available for our younger supporters.

Full Result Details