Tigers Come A Calling

PREVIEW Friday 20th April 2018, 1:04pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Its take 2 as the Staggs Bar Monarchs look to get our home Championship Shield campaign up and running with a visit from our nearest and dearest the Glasgow Tigers to Armadale.

Tonight’s match will be absolutely pivotal in the group stages as both side look to build on decent opening weekends last week. Of Course the Monarchs secured an away point courtesy of only going down by 4 at Workington although there was a frustration in the camp this was not bettered as a few points were left on track. For the Tigers a resounding home victory over Berwick was followed up by a 4 point defeat at Shielfield on Saturday night and again with no disrespect to the Bandits the men form the west would probably have expected more than this.

In such a short group campaign (only 6 matches in total) every contest is vital with any home points dropped more than likely being a death knell to chances of progression this making this weekend’s fixtures all the more intriguing (The Monarchs head West on Sunday afternoon) and with a plethora of Armadale expertise in the visiting ranks a tough night is in prospect.

There are noted Armadale performers from top to bottom of the Tigers line-up with Richie Worrall and Chris Harris at the top end both knowing the quickest way around, a middle order of ex Monarch Claus Vissing alongside Paul Starke and Lewi Kerr all with double digit returns on their Armadale resume and James Sarjeant at the bottom a noted lover of our circuit as he mentioned himself on the excellent TapesUp on RockSport Radio last week (shameless plug).

The only real unknown is Jack Thomas when it comes to Armadale but we have seen how quickly he can adapt to circuits after his 7 point performance in the Scottish Cup at Ashfield a few weeks ago and on the back of a British under 21 semi final win on Wednesday he will come into the meeting sky high in confidence.

That is not to say we should go into this match as underdogs the 2018 Monarchs put on a great show in defeating a Champions select full of experience the other week and with the form shown so far by Ricky and Erik we do not need to worry about matching the Tigers at the top of the team, our reserves will look after themselves with both Josh and Matt looking for a big performance after perhaps scoring less than expected at Workington so that leaves the middle order of Max, Joel and Mark who will be under a little more pressure than accustomed to so far this season. All have acquitted themselves well with Joel and Max taking their first heat wins in Monarchs colours against the Champions side and Mark scoring solidly in all his meetings so far though so again we should have no worries in this regard.

So a cracking derby encounter awaits and we have a special guest appearance form the one thing that matters most for a speedway meeting…… the sun! Couple that with the celebrations of our teams from the 40’s and 50’s tonight and another enthralling encounter awaits.

There is only one place to see it and that is Armadale so get yourself along and cheer on the boys.

See you there!

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