Speedway season off to a flying start
Edinburgh Monarchs and Armadale Devils tallied two wins and two defeats on a busy Easter weekend.
The SGB Championship, the Monarchs got their 2022 campaign up and running in style with an entertaining 50-40 home victory over Berwick Bandits on Good Friday.
However, it would be heavy defeat for both the Monarchs and Devils, of the National Development League, the following evening in a double-header at Berwick’s Shielfield Park.
The Monarchs were swept aside this time with the home side sealing a comfortable 56-34 victory before the Devils took on the Bullets.
Armadale were chasing their maiden victory of the campaign following the season-opening loss to Berwick the previous week at Armadale Stadium but they were unable to get the better of the hosts as the Bullets ran out comfortable 56-28 winners.
Edinburgh were able to put their disappointment behind them as they made it two wins in the space of three days as they picked up a fine 49-41 win away to Newcastle Diamonds on Sunday to take an eight-point lead into tomorrow’s (Friday) Championship KnockOut Cup second leg clash.
The action at Armadale Stadium gets underway at 7.30pm. For ticket information, including how to purchase the stream of the match, visit the club’s website at www.edinburghmonarchs. co.uk.
Aussie aces Josh Pickering and captain Sam Masters will be relied on this season to score points aplenty for the Monarchs and they certainly got up and running in style as they scored 14 and 13 points respectively in the Monarchs’ seasonopening triumph with promoter Alex Harkess hailing the entire squad.
He commented: “I was really happy with the team’s performance, it was everything I hoped it would be.
“All seven of them were very competitive and obviously Lasse Fredriksen made a great debut with five points including a win.
“It was a tight match most of the way but Sam and Josh were devastating in heats 13 and 15.”
The hosts entered the final three heats with just a four point advantage but were too strong over the closing stages for the visitors as they bagged a pair of 5-1s to seal the win.
Harkess was less delighted with the heavy reverse the next day but admitted Berwick is always a challenging venue, saying: “The scoreline was perhaps no great surprise.
“It’s a tough place to come, particularly if you haven’t been before.
“I thought we got better as the match went on but by that point we had too much to do.
“As the match gets to the latter stages gate one is impossible and that was our downfall.”
It was an altogether better display against the Diamonds with new boy Fredriksen getting things off to the perfect start with a heat one victory.
Paco Castagna and Kye Thomson were the pairing who helped cement the win with a brilliant 5-1 in heat 10 having looked somewhat shaky all afternoon with Newcastle seemingly having the perfect chance to get back on level terms.
A delighted Fredriksen said: “It was a good win, last night was a tough one so it was good to get a win.
“I like coming to new places and I want to beat everyone so to get the heat win was good as well. We move on to Friday now and we need to complete the job and beat Newcastle again.”
While it was two from three for the Monarchs, Armadale struggled against Berwick as they suffered a second loss in as many fixtures to start the NDL season.
Number one Danny Phillips topscored with eight points but the hosts were simply too good.
Phillips said: “It was difficult to get a set-up especially with there already being 15 heats having taken place on the track.
“My bike was getting me out the start perfectly though and that’s always the hard bit, if you can get out the start and hit the right line.
“I didn’t get to see much of the racing as I was always doing stuff on the bike but it seems like everyone was putting in lots of effort but we just need to bounce back in the next meeting and then we’ll get that win.”