Busy Weekend Starts With Bears Visit

PREVIEW Friday 21st June 2019, 12:05pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The Staggs Bar Monarchs return to Championship action this week as they kick off a busy spell of 3 matches in 3 days by welcoming the Redcar Bears to Armadale.

The variances of the fixture list means that despite it being the end of June remarkably this will be Redcar's first league match of the season although the Monarchs have only had 2 themselves so they are not running that far behind. The Bears will be looking to make a strong start to their league campaign having had a disappointing Championship Shield campaign finishing bottom of their group. The Bears did however progress in the KO cup knocking out Somerset over 2 legs to set up a quarter final clash with Glasgow.

The Teesiders have not had their troubles to seek in regards team line-up recently with Ben Barker being released and replaced with former captain Ulrich Ostergaard. Ostergaard is now definitely in the stage of being called an 'experienced' campaigner at 38 years old and into his 17th British season. The former PLRC champion slots in at 3rd heat leader behind Charles Wright and Michael Palm Toft both of whom are very capable at any track not least Armadale although both would probably say that they would like to be a little more consistent to take the step to the next level.

Second string backup comes from two improving youngsters in the form of Tom Bacon and Jordy Stewart. Bacon has improved year on year at this level with only an injury curtailing a very good 2018 season. Stewart is also kicking on nicely after his debut year last year and having ridden in the Scottish Open last week has recent Armadale experience.

At reserve is another mix of youth but with experience also in Nathan Greaves and Jack Smith. Greaves is still only 21 but has years of experience at all 3 levels of British speedway whereas 20 year old Smith is using the experience gained with a year in the Championship with Glasgow back in 2017 to try and take advantage of the leagues newcomers with almost a point added to his average so far.

For the Monarchs it will be great to finally see the team back on track, it has now been 4 weeks since the 1-7 raced together although it could be said that time off has done the team a favour with the injuries suffered at the end of May, unfortunately 2 of 3 of our injured riders still aren't ready to return with Luke Ruddick still suffering the effects of concussion and Justin still unsure as to when he could return. The good news is that the break has given Josh time for his shoulder to recover and he returns to the team on Friday. Elsewhere Conner Coles steps in for Luke after a solid showing for Glasgow at Armadale in our last meeting and of course Victor Palovaara has returned to the fold to deputise for Sedgy.

Elsewhere we are as programmed with the hope that the excellent form shown by Ricky and Cameron on Thursday night carries on into the weekend. Ricky was a key man guesting for Peterborough as they came form 6 down to defeat a fancied Swindon outfit by 10, Ricky weighing in with 3 heat wins as part of a 12 point haul. Cameron carried on his blistering Ipswich form with a paid 15 score in the Witches victory over Kings Lynn.

Joel has been riding in Sweden regularly and the hope is that similar to last year this uptick in fixtures in his homeland led to increased scoring for the Monarchs as well. While Willie will be looking for improvement after a pointless score in the open last week.

So the start of 3 matches in 3 days (well for most of the team with the fours on Sunday) and a chance to really kick start our season, 3 points on Friday is the minimum expectation to start the charge.

As always there is only one place to be to see the action and that is trackside…

See you there!

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