The What The Fork Monarchs have shown themselves adept at exceeding people’s expectations this season and Edinburgh line-up in the SGB Championship play-off semi-final, first-leg Leicester Lions, who topped the SGB Championship table at the end of the regular season, determined to cause an upset.
Monarchs go into the clash boosted by victory over Redcar Bears in their quarter-final tie, but the squad are well aware that Leicester won 50-39 when they visited Armadale in mid-May.
However, there was only a five-point gap (Leicester 47, Monarchs 42) when Monarchs lost at Leicester in the SGB Championship in mid-July, but that is history. The semi-final is now and Monarchs are determined to do all they can to earn significant silverware this term, their last at Armadale.
The aggregate winners qualify to meet the winners of the Poole Pirates v Glasgow Tigers semi-final which starts on Sunday (6pm) in the West of Scotland.
Edinburgh and Leicester should be at full-strength on Friday and Lions have a complement of former Monarch riders with Armadale experience in their ranks. They are Richie Worrall, Kyle Howarth and Max Clegg.
Monarchs’ skipper Sam Masters (pictured by Nigel Duncan), the divisional riders’ champion, said: “Whatever happened in the league doesn’t mean anything now, I wasn’t at Leicester and Leicester were at Armadale early when a lot of our boys hadn’t had many laps here yet. It will be a different story now and I think we pushed them pretty hard at their place.”
The British Speedway Network will make their fifth visit of the season (almost a third of the fixtures!) as they are streaming all the Championship play-off matches.
Streaming Details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk or via the BSN section of the SGB website.
WTF MONARCHS: Sam Masters (captain), Lasse Fredriksen, Kye Thomson, Paco Castagna, Josh Pickering, James Sarjeant, Jacob Hook.
WATLING JCB LIONS: Nick Morris, Connor Mountain, Richie Worrall, Dan Thompson, Kyle Howarth (captain), Joe Thompson, Max Clegg.
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