Battle of the Big Guns

PREVIEW Wednesday 4th August 2021, 1:48pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

It's another day on their travels for the What the Fork Monarchs as a battle of the big guns looks in store as we head for Poole on Wednesday night.

The Pirates are probably the form team in the division just now going unbeaten in their last 8 matches including away wins at Leicester, Kent and Plymouth where the Monarchs fell to a 10 point defeat on Tuesday night so the task ahead looks large.

The basis of the Pirates side is strength at the top end where Rory Schlein, Steve Worrall and Danny King form a spearhead that is probably only matched in the division by our own the battles between the two sets of heat leaders sure to be tight throughout.

The Pirates are far from a 3 man team though with Stefan Nielsen the main backup Nielsen's form so far this year being noticed by Sheffield who have recently snapped him up for a Premiership spot.

At reserve Danyon Hume has proved to be another shrewd move, the Pirates like Edinburgh were forced into changes due to the introduction of the rising star system and Hume who remarkably was without a team spot at the time was sharply and cleverly snapped up.

2 guests make up the remainder of the Pirates septet for this match at number 2 Kyle Bickley deputies with the saga that has been the attempted signing of Ondrej Smetana now coming to an end but not in time for this one.

The other change is at reserve where Zach Cook of Plymouth steps in for brother Ben who still is a couple of weeks away from a return from a nasty injury sustained guesting for Redcar last month.

Poole have been relatively untroubled at home so far with 38 points the highest any visiting team has mustered so far.

A big task lies ahead for the Monarchs but this is often when they are at their best, Sam, Richie and Josh will be relishing their battles with the home top end and with 16 points scored by William, Kye and Nathan at Plymouth a slight uptick on this could keep us close.

A large and vocal group of Monarchs will be in attendance to cheer them on if you aren't one of the ones able to make it along then live updates will be available on the Monarchs website tapes up at 7.30pm!

Full Result Details