Big Lead Required

PREVIEW Friday 12th July 2019, 12:00pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It's all up for the cup this weekend as the Staggs Bar Monarchs face off against the Newcastle Diamonds in KO Cup semi final action starting on Friday night at Armadale.

An intriguing tie is in prospect with the Monarchs and Tynesiders having faced off in some absolute classics over the years and with both having excellent records at the others tracks both sides will feel they can progress.

It will be a much changed Newcastle side that head north from that we saw back in April when the Monarchs ran out 51-39 victors in the Championship Shield. From that team Simon Lambert has been replaced by Jacob Bukhave who in turn has been dropped to make way for Ulrich Ostergaard who makes his debut this weekend. Elsewhere both Thomas Jorgensen and Lasse Bjerre miss out through injury with r/r in place for Jorgensen allowing everyone extra rides and Berwick's Coty Garcia stepping in for Bjerre. Garcia was in fantastic form when visiting with the Bandits earlier in the season racing to a paid 14 score.

The remainder of the Diamonds septet includes some of the most powerful and experienced Armadale visitors around. Steve Worrall has the number 1 jacket and while it appears that he is not quite back to the form shown prior to his bad leg break last year he is still a formidable opponent averaging 8.69 points for the 2019 season and always capable of a big score on any night.

The main backup to Worrall may well be expected to come from renaissance man Matty Wethers. Wethers appeared to be heading to wards the twilight of his career settling into a solid second string role but this season has seen 'Stormy' roll back the years with a string of impressive performances and an 8+ point average for the season so far.

Completing a trio of league winning Monarchs in the side is Max Clegg, Clegg perhaps looking to be the major beneficiary of the Ostergaard signing as it pushes the 22 year old Yorkshireman back into a reserve slot where he looks to be one of the most powerful in the league. Completing the line-up is Danny Phillips, Phillips has struggled a little this season but did beat Willie on the Diamonds last visit so can't be discounted.

For the Monarchs it is a welcome looking return to a full line-up with Josh Pickering returning to the fold after a nigh on 6 week absence with a shoulder injury. Pickering has been a hard man to replace with his improvement in form this season not yet shown in his rolling average.

Ricky Wells also gave the Monarchs fans a scare on Monday night when pulling out of Poole's match at Kings Lynn live on BT, fortunately some physio seems to have done the trick and Ricky looked back to form with a 10 point haul at Ipswich on Thursday night.

The Monarchs will line up as expected the rest of the way with big performances needed by all. Joel and Victor have been in fine form in the last couple of weeks and a pair of double digit scores could go a long way towards building a big lead.

The key men may well come at reserve where as I say on an almost weekly basis more is required particularly from William Lawson. Max Clegg will come into the tie full of confidence and with a point to prove against the Monarchs and it will be up to Lawson as a former number 1 of both teams to nullify his points scoring whereas Connor's job will be to beat Phillips anytime they face up.

This is a tie that literally could go either way as proven by the results earlier in the season where the Monarchs won by 12 points at Armadale and fell by 10 points at Newcastle. While that would do the job this weekend it may be a little close for comfort and the Monarchs need to build up as big a lead as possible at home on Friday night.

With the second leg to come at Brough Park on Sunday a big lead would be most welcome, can the boys rack up the score required? There is only one place to be to see all the action and that is trackside.

See you there!

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