One step away from the final

NEWS Thursday 22nd September 2022, 11:13am

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs

This year's WTF Monarchs have shown themselves to be adept at exceeding people's expectations, and so they line up on Friday to start the Championship Playoff against table-topping Leicester determined to cause another upset!

Monarchs beat Redcar in a thrilling quarter final tie, Leicester as the top side over the league programme qualify direct to the Semi-final.

Leicester of course won by a massive 50-39 when they visited Armadale in May, although there was only a 5-point gap when the Monarchs lost at Leicester in the Championship in July. Past results are unlikely to be in anyone's thinking as they approach the weekend, not even Leicester's very disappointing result this week at Poole in the KO Cup when they went down by 30-60.

It all starts even on Friday night with the return on Saturday, the aggregate winners going on to meet the winners of the Poole v Glasgow semi-final tie which starts on Sunday.

Both teams should be at full strength on Friday. Most teams have a complement of former Monarch riders and Leicester are no exception with Richie Worrall, Kyle Howarth and Max Clegg in their ranks!

Monarchs' skipper Sam Masters, the divisional riders' champion, says "Whatever happened in the league doesn't mean anything now, I wasn't at Leicester and Leicester were at Armadale early when a lot of our boys hadn't had many laps here yet. I think it will be a different story now, over the 2 legs I think we pushed them pretty hard at their place as well so we will be going for it that's for sure."

The British Speedway Network will make their fifth visit of the season (almost a third of the fixtures!) as they are streaming all the Championship Playoff matches.

Streaming Details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk or via the BSN section of the SGB website.

FRIDAY'S MATCH:

Friday 23rd September: Edinburgh Monarchs v Leicester Lions (Championship Playoff first leg), Armadale, 7:30pm

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

WATLING JCB LIONS: Nick Morris, Connor Mountain, Richie Worrall, Dan Thompson, Kyle Howarth (captain), Joe Thompson, Max Clegg.

Saturday 24th September: Leicester Lions v Edinburgh Monarchs (Championship Playoff second leg), Paul Chapman Arena, 7:00pm

Full Result Details