Josh Pickering has confirmed that he will be leaving Edinburgh Monarchs after a magnificent seven seasons with the club.
The popular Aussie (pictured) skippered the side and said goodbye with another fine performance, top scoring for Monarchs with 15 points.
He described the Monarchs as “the best club in the world” but added: “I’ve seen other riders progress who I think I am as good as and I must follow the same path and see what I can achieve.”
It’s been a tough season for injury-hit Monarchs but 26-year-old Pickering has stuck with it and it was disappointing for him to end his career with the Armadale side with a home defeat.
Poole completed an unbeaten run in Group A of the Cab Direct Championship play-offs with a 54-36 win and they again displayed a liking for Armadale.
Kyle Newman was in great form at reserve with 14 points and three bonus whilst Steve Worrall (12), Richard Lawson (11+2) and Zach Cook (11) joined him in double figures.
The result was made more empathic by the visitors securing 5-1s in each of the last three races and Poole now await news of their Grand Final opponents with Group B to be resolved between Glasgow Tigers and Oxford Cheethas on Tuesday. The scoreline in the first-leg was Oxford 50, Glasgow 40 and Tuesday’s tapes-up is 7.30pm.
Newman said: “It was a great night for me, good night for the boys, we got the win we came for, a debut win for our stand-in team manager Stephen Allen so good all round and sets us up for the Finals.
Edinburgh team manager Alex Harkess said: “Up until Heat 12 we were making a real fight of it. The lads were really trying hard and there was some great racing. If we had had a No 1 scoring double figures it could have been a much closer match, that was the problem we had.”
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