Busy Spell Starts At Plymouth

PREVIEW Tuesday 31st May 2022, 2:00pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The What the Fork Monarchs start a busy 8 days with the longest trip in British speedway as they head for Devon to take on the Plymouth Gladiators in Championship action.

This starting a spell of 5 matches in that 8-day spell as the Monarchs league and cup hopes could be bolstered or blown depending on results.

Taking anything from this one will be no easy feat though as the Gladiators boast a formidable home record that has already seen them best sides such as Poole and Leicester with relevant ease.

The home men are led by an experienced spearhead with a top 4 of Hans Anderson, Michael Palm-Toft, Ben Barker and Eddie Kennett. Kennett though has been ruled out since a first match of the season smash and on a handily high average the busiest man in British speedway Chris Harris steps in.

Alfie Bowtell completes the top 5 and is always a handy man round the tight confines of the coliseum. Recent injuries and retirements have meant a couple of changes from season's start at the bottom end and the injury to Dan Gilkes was a real blow for the Gladiators. Replacement Ben Morley is a more than capable rider though as we saw at Armadale when he guested for Redcar a couple of Fridays ago. Highly touted Harry McGurk completes the line-up.

For the Monarchs there are 2 changes to their normal 7, Lasse Fredriksen unfortunately has a broken shoulder after his off on Friday night, so r/r operates at number 2 with Kye and our reserve pair able to deputise.

The other change comes at that bottom end, James Sarjeant still on the side-lines although hoping to be back sooner than originally anticipated misses out, with James's average not jumping up till the 1st of June and many riders in Poland for the u24 league local National League man Ben Trigger steps in to deputise.

That will off course put pressure on the top 4 to come up with the goods as Jacob also will be visiting for the first time and it has to be said a mixed bag of results came form our top men in a disappointing defeat on the south coast last year. Sam, Kye and Josh combined for just 21 points that night so a repeat of that could make for a long night for the Monarchs.

Paco Castagna on the other hand hit double figures in his visit last year albeit form reserve so it is a certainly a place that holds no fears for the Italian.

Tapes-up at 7:00pm and it is fantastic to say for an away fixture that for those that can't make it that the match is live streamed with passes able to be purchased on the Plymouth website.

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