Former Monarchs’ star Josh Pickering spearheads Scunthorpe Scorpions in his first match back at Armadale since he last wore Edinburgh colours in 2024.
Scunthorpe brought Pickering (pictured) back into the Cab Direct Championship at a time when his plans to race in Poland were temporarily on hold.
They accepted his assessed average of well over 11 in order to do that and the talented Aussie has been hitting sky-high scores home and away.
Pickering is in no way the only card in the Scorpions’ pack. They have a solid squad backing him up and an away win at Redcar Bears had eyebrows raised.
They followed that with a narrow loss at Workington Comets and their challenge is certainly not hampered by the inclusion of Monarchs’ Academy star Dayle Wood as guest replacement for starlet Ryan Ingram. He is taking an exam.
However, Monarchs will have No 1 Dan Thompson back on track after five weeks out with a broken collar bone after he top scored in his comeback in the away defeat at Poole Pirates in the BSN Series, semi-final, second-leg in midweek.
Captain Paco Castagna is forced to take a break to allow his hand injury to heal and Monarchs bring in Nick Morris as a guest replacement.
Alex Harkess, Monarchs’ team manager, said Scunthorpe deserve respect and he added: “To go to Redcar and win was brilliant, and they went very close at Workington as well.
“Josh has been scoring maximums or very close to it which gives then a good start, but that doesn’t win matches on its own. You have to have other people performing as well.”
Friday’s match will be Live Streamed for those who cannot attend and details are on www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk.
ROSS ECO TECHNOLOGIES MONARCHS: Dan Thompson, Jonatan Grahn, Justin Sedgmen (captain), Nick Morris (guest), Kye Thomson, Mitch Cluff, Jordy Loftus.
ELLIE ROSE SCORPIONS: Josh Pickering (captain), Connor Mountain, Luke Harrison, rider replacement for Dan Gilkes, Michael Palm Toft, Dayle Wood, Nathan Ablitt.
