Sam Masters enjoys Jubilee double glory
Event marked Staggs Bar Monarchs’70th year
The Edinburgh Staggs Bar Monarchs celebrated their 70th anniversary with a special Platinum Jubilee event at Armadale Stadium on Friday night.
There were plenty of old friends on show, both on the track and around the stadium, for the special occasion which saw a four-team, 16-heat competition.
Team manager Alex Harkess hailed the event, saying: “It was a relaxing night and it was great to see so many familiar faces all over the place.
“There was a good atmosphere and it felt like a big occasion but we are back to the serious stuff next week of course.”
The winners were the team labelled “1950 Monarchs” and sponsored by the John Somerville collection, namely Sam Masters, Mark Riss, Mason Campton and Josh Pickering with former Monarchs captain Masters winning the Grand Final Individual race.
It wasn’t really a night about winners and losers, though. It was more about all the good times the club have enjoyed during their illustrious and eventful 70 years.
The best heat of the night was actually the final one as the four team’s number one riders tussled it out.
Masters, Rory Schlein, Craig Cook and Ricky Wells took to the start line and Schlein repeated a move which earlier in the season brought him Scottish Open success with a tremendous tight turn and inside pass to win the heat.
The big guns all performed well. Cook won his first two, but failed to finish the other two races while Scott Nicholls dropped a single point in the team event. Richie Worrall, too, was very much to the fore and was runnerup in the Individual race.
Mark Riss won two heats to score seven points for his winning team, while Josh Pickering is always entertaining and tallied eight points. Campton added six.
1950 Monarchs - 30: Sam Masters 9, Josh Pickering 8, Mark Riss 7, Mason Campton 6.
1983 Monarchs - 26: Richie Worrall 12, Rory Schlein 9, Max Ruml 4, Lasse Fredriksen 1.
2018 Monarchs - 24: Ricky Wells 11, Paul Starke 7, Matthew Wethers 4, Joel Andersson 2.
1966 Monarchs - 23: Scott Nicholls 14, Craig Cook 6, William Lawson 2, Coty Garcia 1.