Well the Christmas decorations on the Dome in George Street are up which means it is still ages until Santa comes a calling however we know elves across the country are already helping plan for the big day. Whilst you are in that stage of ordering gifts can we remind you that if you sign up for EasyFundraising the Monarchs Fans Trust can benefit from many purchases you make. Just click on the website https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/monarchsft/ and sign up, nominate the Monarchs Fans Trust as your supported cause then find your favourite retailer and click on the link to their website and make your purchase as normal. That is all you have to do, there is no extra cost or admin for you to do and the Trust will receive a small percentage of the cost of your order.

There are 1000s of websites that are signed up from Amazon to Screwfix, Bookings.com to Dominos Pizza, Now TV to Aviva Insurance and many more sop lots of opportunities to get money for nothing. We would like to thank everyone who continues to use this service, it has raised over £2,700 for the Trust and more details can be found here.

100th member Sam Boon meets members of the committee – photo courtesy of Jack Cupido

It is exactly a monthe to the 3rd Monarchs Fans Trust Annual general Meeting and we are very keen to hear from anyone who might be interested in joining the committee.  No special skills are required, just an interest in the well-being of the Monarchs.  We meet once a month so it needn’t be too time consuming.  If you are interested, please get in touch with us either by emailing info@monarchsfanstrust.co.uk or speaking to one of the existing committee members.

In addition, if anyone would like to propose a resolution at the AGM, please let us know and we will add it to the agenda which will be posted out with the formal notice of the AGM later this week.

At the AGM we will also draw the winning tickets for the 2017 End of Season raffle. There is still plenty time to buy and/or sell tickets for this. Tickets can be bought online here or speak to a committee member. Lots of amazing prizes to be won including the £500 cash first prize.

From Cinder to Shale arguably the best collection of Speedway bikes and paraphernalia in the world will be open to the public on Sunday 5th November from 10am – 4pm. It is a must see for all speedway enthusiasts and an opportunity for members of the Fans Trust to get together during the close season. Members of the Monarchs Fans Trust will be visiting the Museum on Edgefield Road, Loanhead (EH20 9TB) at about 11am. Hopefully see you there.

One of the many classic speedway bikes stunningly restored at Cinder to Shale

Tickets for the 2017 End of Season draw are now available to be purchased online. This payment will be made by Direct Debit using our GoCardless partner. Please note that tickets sold online will NOT be sent out instead will be stored by the Fans Trust on your behalf. You will receive an email with your ticket numbers before the draw and the list of prize winners will be sent on Monday after the draw is complete.

Tickets can be purchased here. Details of prizes can be found at the bottom of the page.

You will be able to pick up draw tickets at the track, please see a committee member at the Gazebo (weather permitting) before the meeting tonight or in the bar after the meeting. They will also be continue to hand out mini Ed the Monarchs for our #EdsTravels competition and posters of 2017 team members. These are all free as we use the money collected from EasyFundraising to help promote the speedway.

The 3rd prize to be announced is a wonderful bottle of Veuve Clicquot Brut Rose Champagne and Thorntons chocolates very kindly donated by Lloyd Technology. Lloyd Technology offer managed support services and solutions that benefits companies of all shapes and sizes across Scotland.

The 4th prize is a voucher for 2 people for a quad biking trek at Blacklaw Quad Trekking based at Piperdam, Angus, Scotland. Experience the thrill of quad biking in Scotland, driving round hills and farmland, over dirt tracks, up and down steep slopes, through muddy banks and water splashes as they take you on a real quad biking adventure day in Scotland. Full safety clothing and helmets will be issued before setting off on your quad biking adventure. Participants need to be over 14 years old to ride; however, they do have 2 quad bikes for children over 12 years old but an adult (parent or guardian) must accompany them. No experience is required, so if you have never been quad biking in Scotland before then not to worry, they’ll have you revving it up off road in no time.

Monarchs Fans Trust End of Season Draw 2017 Prizes (announced so far)

Tonight (Friday 4th August against Sheffield) we begin our Ed’s Travels competition: pick up your little mini Eds on the way into the stadium, take them away and send us your photographs of him wherever you go. We are looking to see who can come up with the best or most unusual location that Ed will appear on his Travels.  Using social media send us your photographs of Ed by tagging them #EdsTravels and add the Monarchs Fans Trust’s Facebook page or Twitter tag @MonarchsTrust. We will feature the best photographs on our website and there will be a prize for the best one each month.

This is the latest in our Fans Trust giveaways done in association with the speedway club, the bugs will be available (whilst stock lasts) at every meeting between now and the end of the season. We also continue our rider poster giveaway so please come along and get the riders missing from your collection.

We also continue to distribute end of season draw books so please come and get them, the 3rd prize will be announced later…

Peter Fernie has won the auction for a 2017 Edinburgh Parsons Peebles Monarchs Season Ticket, this was originally given to the Trust by the speedway club. Thank you to everyone that made a bid and special thanks to Ross Green for donating the prize to the auction.

The first fixture available for the season ticket is tonight’s match against the Berwick Bandits. The Bandits will be out for revenge after our win in the borders last Saturday night and have a few riders who could cause a problem or two. However the Monarchs looked good in the first two matches and will be looking to build on this on home shale so should be a good night.