Confidence boost ahead of busy week
Edinburgh Monarchs are revving up for a challenging week as they face three SGB Championship fixtures in five days.
The club, who earlier this week were given notice that they must vacate their Armadale Stadium home at the end of the current season, host the Birmingham Brummies tomorrow (Friday) night.
That’s then followed by a long trip to the south coast for clashes against the Poole Pirates on Tuesday and a battle against the Plymouth Gladiators the following day.
That’s not all for local speedway fans, however, as Armadale Stadium welcomes some of the top young riders in the country on Saturday afternoon for the second round of the British Youth Championships.
The Armadale Devils of the National Development League are also in action as they travel to Manchester on Friday to take on the Belle Vue Colts as they search for their first win of the season.
The Monarchs can go into the week ahead with some confidence after two impressive displays against Redcar last weekend that put a halt to their three-game losing streak.
They picked up a well-deserved 4841 victory in the home clash on Friday night despite losing James Sarjeant in heat two after a collision with teammate Jacob Hook and followed that up two days later with a losing bonus point in a spirited 45-39 reverse in Redcar.
Young Australian Hook produced a brilliant performance in the home triumph, with two paid wins, and admitted he’s looking for more of the same going forward in his maiden season in British speedway.
He commented: “Two paid wins in heats where I made starts. If I can make a few more of these then I can start to score some points for the team and for myself.
“To come from five points down and win against a strong team like Redcar was very good, everyone did their job.”
The Bears made the stronger start and were sitting 14-9 in front before a fine fightback by the hosts.
The turnaround was largely down to the Kye Thomson – Paco Castagna pairing which had failed to click all season finally kicking into gear with a pair of 5-1 victories in heats five and nine before the win was secured in heat 14 as Castagna and Hook combined to score a 5-1.
Two days later they fell to a six-point loss in a meeting that was called after 14 heats following heavy rain, but it was a result co-promoter John Campbell admitted he was relatively happy with.
He said: “We were pleased to get a point though we would have liked to do better.
“The decision to call off the last heat was the correct one. It could have been made sooner as none of the riders wanted to take risks on the difficult surface”.
The visitors trailed from heat two and although they were able to keep in touch, they never got close enough to seriously threaten taking the lead with heat leaders Thomson, Josh Pickering and Sam Masters having to do the bulk of the scoring.
To come fromfivepoints down and win against a strong team likeRedcarwas very good, everyone did their job Jacob Hook