Deficit To Make Up Before Playoff Clash

PREVIEW Friday 15th October 2021, 2:23pm

by Jim Milton

  Edinburgh Monarchs

Another week, another totally absorbing chapter in the story of Edinburgh Monarchs' quest for honours 2021-style. Incident, accident and more twist and turns than the road back to Airdrie, you're never quite sure what's round the next bend, only that it won't be run of the mill.

On the face of it, last Friday's return leg of our play-off quarter-final with Redcar Bears, barring some kind of monumental disaster, had the uncomplicated look of a shoo-in. A lead of 12 points from the first leg at the Bears' Prima Media Arena had surely paved the way for a comfortable, through-the-motions passage into the semi-finals and an all-Scottish clash with Glasgow….

….And that's precisely how it panned out – but on Tuesday, rather than Friday. One Redcar rider who must have wished that the tie had run its course on the Friday, though, is former Edinburgh star, James Sarjeant – even if it had meant the end of his team's Championship aspirations for another year.

Even allowing for his speedway rider's fiercely competitive streak, what in hindsight the Sheffield-born 27-year-old would have given for a trouble-free fifteen heats at the office. What, in actual fact, he got was a horror crash on the second bend of the first lap of the first heat that left him with knee and pelvic injuries that required a trip to hospital in the track ambulance.

Crashes, of course, are an unfortunate part of this sport's rich tapestry yet, even though measures to ensure rider safety have never been more stringent, a bad one still has the capacity to shock. And no matter from which angle you viewed it from, Sarj's high speed charge into the air fence looked so horrific it stunned an entire stadium into silence.

Trivialities like silverware and title wins pale into insignificance at such times, and even though the meeting was eventually abandoned after a lengthy delay, thoughts around Armadale centred purely on James and his well-being.

The tie was quickly rearranged for the following Tuesday, but first we had the small matter of a Knockout Cup semi-final against Glasgow to contend with. Keeping the score as tight as possible in Sunday's first leg at Ashfield was always going to be tough but, in light of the Monarchs' current form and the fact that their last visit to the Tigers' den had ended in victory, confidence was high for a positive result to take back to the 'Dale.

Sadly, as things turned out, any notion of the Monarchs staying within touch of their rivals was scuppered as early as Heat 2 by which time Glasgow had forged ahead 9-3. What followed was as uncharacteristically flat a performance as we've been privy to all season. Only Sam and Kye contributed more than half a dozen points, while a combined tally of just ten was all that could be had from Masters' fellow heat-leaders Richie and Josh. Yet even though we managed just one heat advantage all evening, our points deficit with two heats remained a far from insurmountable ten.

Like with those opening races, however, the Tigers finished the meeting in devastating style with heat advantages in Heats 14 and 15 that stretched that margin to a far less forgiving 16 points.

Clawing back that level of arrears in this Friday's second leg at Armadale would be a magnificent achievement although, following Tuesday's emphatic win over the Bears, perhaps one not quite as daunting as it first seemed.

That 57-33 defeat of Redcar, repeated against Glasgow on Friday, would be more than enough to see us progress to the KO Cup final but I fear the Tigers won 't be quite the easy touch the Bears turned out to be. Lewis Kerr apart, they proved a mere shadow of the side that left Armadale with two points back in May. They may well have been boosted by having Michael Palm Toft back from injury but the influential Dane was clearly still suffering from his hand injury and a fall in outing No.3 signalled his withdrawal from the meeting.

Elsewhere, the four rider replacement run-outs for James Sarjeant yielded just a single point between them, while neither Jordan Jenkins nor Ryan Kinsley managed to score at all when stepping in for Palm Toft.

The briefest glimpse of intent courtesy of a Charles Wright-inspired 4-2 in Heat 1 fleetingly set Edinburgh nerves a-jangling, but it was reserves-to-the-rescue one race later when the guesting Jason Edwards led Drew Kemp to a storming 5-1. Plain sailing from then on in perhaps, but I doubt the cards will fall so conveniently for us the next time.

As if we haven't been served up enough drama and excitement already, the upcoming weekend looks set to be even more enthralling than anything that's gone before. At the risk of understating things here, those Friday and Saturday night visits to come from our friends and rivals along the M8 are sure to make for a mouth-watering and unmissable spectacle.

No, cancel that – this is massive in the annals of the Edinburgh Monarchs; back to back classics that could be the subject of discussion and reminiscence for many years to come – hopefully more by our fans than theirs!

With perpetual guest (and we're extremely fortunate to have him) Jason Edwards virtually part of the Armadale furniture these days, Edinburgh will be at full strength for the tartan double-header. Glasgow, meanwhile, miss Tom Brennan for Sunday's clash. The Tigers' recent signing's outstanding form of late has been rewarded with the Under-21 slot in Great Britain's Speedway of Nations line-up for this weekend's finals at Belle Vue. Berwick Bandits' Leon Flint will deputise.

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