Academy stars win trophies!

NEWS Sunday 14th May 2023, 8:21pm

by Mike Hunter

  Edinburgh Monarchs Academy

Right now the most successful part of the Monarchs organisation in terms of silverware is (by far) the kids of the Academy, our enthusiastic youngsters who have been dashing up and down the road over the last few days and have brought home the trophies!

Our three leading lights racing in the Support class of the British Youth Championship are Rocco Webb, Lewis Hague and Liam Morris, and all of them have something to show from the weekend. Rocco has had two first places, Liam two thirds and Lewis (who rode in only one of the events) had a second.

They have had the great pleasure of racing on the top circuits at Belle Vue and Glasgow, and whatever else they might do in their speedway careers, they are unlikely to forget the last three days.

In between of course, Rocco and Lewis were part of the West Lothian Wildcats team which grabbed a draw 18-18 in the Northern Junior League at the new Workington track against the local Meteors. So it has been some weekend!

The fun started at Belle Vue on Friday when all three Academy kids travelled down to the NSS for the British Youth Championship which preceded the National League match against Oxford. With a 5-per-heat race format race wins were worth 4 points, and each of our boys won 3 of their 4 heats!

Their qualifying totals were Lewis 15, Rocco 14 and Liam (who had a non-finish) 12. Obviously they all made the final and the result was – Rocco Webb, Lewis Hague, Liam Morris, Kane Newby.

Today at Glasgow, Lewis could not compete due to being at a wedding. They had a normal scoring system and four-person races, and the qualifying scores were Lewis Hague 11 and Liam Morris 11 (when is someone getting a maximum?) Final result this time: Rocco Webb, Charlie Southwick, Liam Morris, Kane Newby. Even standing on the top of the podium at Ashfield, Rocco was not as tall as second-placed Charlie Southwick.

The Armadale round of the British Youth Championship is on June 3rd which is a Saturday afternoon event.