Dan Back, Paco Out as Final Place Up For Grabs

PREVIEW Tuesday 9th June 2026, 2:35pm

by Graham Muncie

  Edinburgh Monarchs

The team news is bittersweet for Edinburgh Monarchs as they head south to Poole on Wednesday to take on the Pirates in the second leg of the BSN Series semi final with a two point lead to defend.

The good news is the return of number one Dan Thompson, the young Englishman has been much missed since breaking his collarbone at the start of May and his return is a real boost to all.

Tempering the excitement of Dan's return is the news that captain Paco Castagna faces at least a couple of weeks on the sideline as our Italian talisman has been forced to admit defeat in trying to ride through a thumb injury that has now been diagnosed as ligament damage and a spell of rest and rehab is required.

The Monarchs will still have a full septet to call on though as Dan's twin brother Joe Thompson steps in to guest for Paco in this one.

Elsewhere the team is as expected after a little bit of a break for the British Grand Prix weekend at Manchester albeit there has been track action for Jordy Loftus with a strong 5th place finish in the British U21 final and Jonatan Grahn in his native Sweden.

The hosts are of course many people's favourites to sweep the board in the Championship this year so the task at hand is great but optimism can be taken from recent performances at Wimborne Road, where each of the Monarchs can point to promising individual results that if all of these can be put together could lead to a challenge to the Pirates home dominance.

There are a couple of changes to the home line-up also since the first leg at Armadale at the end of May with Fraser Bowes declared fit to return from rib and lung injuries and winner of that British Under 21 final Cooper Rushen now having ridden enough meetings to achieve a true average, the 16-year-old with a remarkable 6.17 figure so far having started the year on a 2.00.

This line-up shuffle would not appear to have caused any diluting of the Pirates team as experienced Kyle Newman drops to reserve with a 5 point plus average so through no lack of his own form.

Richard Lawson, Lewi Kerr and Zach Cook lead the Pirates charge all capable of going through the card in any meeting and with fellow hotshot Will Cairns still at reserve there is no apparent weakness in this Poole outfit.

The Monarchs are in fine fettle also though and this has all the makings of a tight battle with both teams looking to be the first to mark their name in a competition final this year.

Tapes-up is 7:30pm with all of the action available on the Pirates TV stream available here:

Visit Pirates TV

Live updates available on the Monarchs website throughout also.