Monarchs and Bears aiming for Cup Final

NEWS Thursday 18th August 2022, 12:35pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

This week's action at Armadale is the semi-final of the Knockout Cup, first leg, between the What the Fork Monarchs and Redcar, a team on a high having just won (last weekend) the Championship Pairs.

The winning pair of Charles Wright and Lewis Kerr will of course be leading the charge for the Bears but they also have Richard Lawson (recently a hero for Monarchs in the same capacity) guesting in place of Erik Riss, former Monarchs' captain and league winner.

There are no obvious weak links lower down the Redcar order either, especially with recent signing Kyle Newman introduced the other night at Poole where he won a heat.

Monarchs brilliantly clinched their Playoff place on Wednesday by winning at Oxford, and on Friday they should welcome back the one and only Sam Masters, team captain and top rider in the league, just three weeks after a double injury sustained at Armadale. We should get clarification today that Sam is ready to ride.

Monarchs' heat leader Kye Thomson who has been so prominent in recent achievements by the team, said of the semi "I think we have the team do it, I think we can put on a strong performance and do a good job. We know Redcar and our way round Redcar as well and obviously last year we were able to beat them in the quarter final for the league so I think we have a good shot of doing the same this time, they are a good team, but I think we can do it."

Friday should certainly be one of the highlights of the season, and Monarchs are bidding to reach the Cup Final for the second season running. The second leg is at Redcar on Friday 2nd September.

The annual collection for the Speedway Riders Benevolent Fund will take place during the match. The Benevolent Fund does terrific work in supporting injured speedway riders.

The riders will walk amongst the crowd if you can spare some cash for their buckets. All donations are gratefully received and vital to the fund.

Friday's Cup semi-final match will be Live Streamed by the club. Details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk

FRIDAY'S MATCH:

Friday 19th August: Edinburgh Monarchs v Redcar Bears (Knockout Cup semi final first leg), Armadale, 7:30pm

WTF MONARCHS: Sam Masters (captain), Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Josh Pickering, James Sarjeant, Jacob Hook.

AGILIA BEARS: Charles Wright, Jason Edwards, Richard Lawson (guest), Kasper Andersen, Lewis Kerr (captain) Kyle Newman, Jordan Jenkins.

Full Result Details