While the senior team faces a testing trip to Ashfield on Friday evening for the second leg of the Scottish Cup, The Monarchs Academy riders will be preparing to get their season under way with a home match at Armadale in the National Development League on Saturday at 7pm, racing against Middlesbrough Tigers.
The Academy had their best results last season with home and away wins against Middlesbrough, the away victory in September being followed by a win over Leicester which was the only defeat suffered by the champions all year.
So the plan is to keep that going with a win, though both teams show changes from last season’s lineups. For the Academy Connor Coles and Dayle Wood are back, expected to be amongst the league’s leading riders, with backup mainly expected from the middle pairing of Sam McGurk and Matt Marson.
The visitors have the Pijper brothers Ace and Stene paired together, plus former Leicester stalwart Tom Spencer leading their attack, and they are captained by ex-Armadale favourite Danny Phillips.
Team manager Scott Wilson believes his side can make an early mark. “We have an opportunity to get off to a good start with two home fixtures to open the season. This week’s will be difficult though as the Middlesbrough team is very much a strength in depth sort of side which can be a tricky type of opponent for a slightly more top heavy team like ours.
“It will be important that our top 4 win plenty of races and the lower end of the team back them up sufficiently by taking points off of their opposite numbers. A win tonight would be a big result to get us up and running.”
Saturday’s match will be Live Streamed for those who cannot attend, details on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk.
SATURDAY’S MATCH:
Saturday 12th April: Edinburgh Monarchs Academy v Middlesbrough Tigers (National Development League), Armadale, 7.00pm
STELLAR MONARCHS ACADEMY: Connor Coles (Capt.), Kyran Lyden, Matt Marson, Sam McGurk, Dayle Wood, Mark Parker, Lee Harrison.
MIDDLESBROUGH HEAT FLOORS TIGERS: Tom Spencer, Jamie Halder, Ace Pijper, Stene Pijper, Danny Phillips (Capt.), Laylan Richardson, Kai Ward.
The next meeting after Saturday’s at Armadale is the Championship Knockout Cup 1st leg match between Stellar Monarchs and Workington Comets on Friday 18th April at 7.30pm. The return is the following day.
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