The 500th Meeting at Armadale on Friday saw Edinburgh take top spot in the Premier League for the first time in 2015. The match was spoiled by the late arrival of a number of Plymouth riders which made it a very one sided affair with a final score of 64-28. This was as a result of a major accident on the M6, the start of the meeting was put back half an hour but even with that delay Morten Risager missed his first ride and Armadale legend Ryan Fisher missed two only arriving just before heat 9. The Monarchs can only beat what was put in front of them and that is exactly what they did as three riders hit a maximum score: guest Nick Morris, captain Craig Cook and a special paid 18 points from Erik Riss. Second guest Theo Pijper, Max Clegg and in particular Justin Sedgmen also scored well as only Jack Holder put up any real resistance for the Devils. At the end of the season all that will matter is the Monarchs took the 3 match points and went top and they hope to stay there. League table courtesy of the official Edinburgh Speedway webpage http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/statistics/.
It was a big night at Armadale as the promotion invited a number of former riders to celebrate the 500th meeting, who would have predicted in 1997 that we would still be hear 18 years later. What an 18 years it has been, the KO Cup win back in that first year may have given a small indication into the success the Armadale era would bring the Monarchs. An amazing 11 major team honours have been won during this time culminating in the fantastic treble last season. It was great to see so many riders that have entertained us over the years.
The Monarchs are sitting well in all three competitions again this year but it is the battle off the track that the Monarchs Fans Trust are concerned about, our main purpose is to ensure that we are here in (at least) 500 more meetings and our members will do their best to try to make sure that happens. The original plan was to present the 3rd cheque from the Trust to the promotion on Friday, this was not possible with everything that was going on so was put back 2 weeks. It will now be done during the Sheffield Tigers meeting on Friday 10th July. Committee members were still very busy on Friday as we set up a display of old and new bikes and various other speedway memorabilia, many supporters young and old were able to take advantage and get their photo taken on one of these machines. Thank you to everyone who made this possible especially Ryan Morris for his help on the night.
It was also Lord Rocket’s (Geoff Craythorne) 65th birthday last week and he celebrated in style with a lap on one of his vintage speedway bikes. Geoff has been a good help to the committee of the Trust during our first year and we wish him a Happy Birthday.
