The Edinburgh Speedway home match video night takes place tonight (Friday 9th December) in the Thomas Morton Hall, Ferry Road from 7.30pm. Fans Trust committee members will be present and available to answer any questions before the start, during the interval and at the end of the night. Come along and have a chat. Hopefully see a full house as we all get a small speedway fix to keep us going until next season.

At the conclusion of last night’s AGM the End of Season Draw was made and Trust member Johnny Beskow was the name on the first ticket out the bucket to win the first prize of £500. Rumour has it he may use the money to buy a 2017 season ticket but no matter whatever he does with the cash we congratulate him on the win. A staggering 2,449 raffle tickets were sold raising a fantastic amount for the Trust, thank you to everyone who bought and sold tickets. We are also extremely grateful to everyone who donated prizes, the full list of all winners are below.

Despite the freezing temperatures there was a very healthy turn out at the AGM, we thank everyone for attending. Chairman Scott Somerville talked through the activities the Trust have been up to in 2016 and detailed the audited accounts. He also projected the finances for the next year and publicised the plans that we hope to take forward to the club to help make 2017 a great year. Alex Harkess was in attendance and took the opportunity to thank the committee and members of the Trust, he confirmed it has been an incredibly difficult year for the club and that without the contribution of the Trust and the other fundraising activities it is unlikely the Monarchs would be running next year. The committee will remain unchanged for next year and the Board report produced on the night will be sent out to all members in the next week.

Raffle Prize WInners

Just a reminder that the Monarchs Fans trust takes place tomorrow at 7.30pm at Armadale Stadium, all members welcome. At the end of the meeting we will have the raffle draw including the £500 cash prize. Please ensure you have returned all tickets to a committee member before the start of the meeting. See you tomorrow.

On Friday 25th November the Monarchs Fans Trust will hold its second Annual General Meeting in the bar at Armadale Stadium from 7.30pm. We will review the last year, summarise the various activities the Trust has been involved in and present the current financial situation. The plans and suggestions for 2017 will also be discussed as we try to build on the successes of the Trust. All members are welcome to attend and we hope to see many of you there, this is your chance to get involved, express your opinions and influence how we move forward. The membership is the most important part of the Trust and we hope you can help us build a positive future.

At the end of the meeting we will make the draw to find out the prize winners for the End of Season raffle, including the £500 first prize. Full details of the draw and other prizes can be found here. There is still time to enter the raffle, if you have any sold tickets please return them to us by the start of the meeting. If you have tickets to return and not able to attend please contact a committee member or the mailbox as soon as possible so we can arrange to collect. You have to be in in it to win it.

See you Friday.

It’s been a strange summer in the east of Scotland with some absolutely beautiful days and some not so great but what has almost been guaranteed is if it’s Friday it is normally raining! This is having an almost disastrous effect on Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway who have had 8 matches postponed and several more adversely affected by the weather already in 2016. Speedway riders can’t see if it’s raining or race on waterlogged tracks so despite the best efforts of the promoters and the volunteer track staff there has only been 3 meetings (out of 10) raced at Armadale since 3rd June.

Every postponement is a 4 figure loss to the promotion and with 9 away fixtures in the same period the cash flow situation of the club has gone from bad to worse and almost to the point of no return. In actual fact if it wasn’t for the support of the innovative fund raising activities the club and its supporters fulfil every week it would be past that already. The Monarchs 100 bridge walk that Scott Wilson and Derek Wilkinson have organised this week is the latest of these and the likes of the MSSC, the Grand Draw, Edinburgh Speedway Videos and others are fundamental to the club. It was recognised 2 years ago that this was still not going to be enough to ensure the future of speedway in the east of Scotland so the Monarchs Fans Trust was set up to help.  The Trust has worked hard raising funds and trying to spread the message of speedway in Scotland. The principles of the Trust are to secure the long term future of the club and to help stabilise the finances of the club and it is the latter that is more pressing concern at the moment. The chairman of the Trust Scott Somerville has been attending board meetings of the speedway club and presented a pretty stark position to the committee who immediately agreed to a £7,000 donation in addition to the regular £1,000 monthly contribution in August. This is the 2nd time this summer the Trust has donated extra funds and brings the 2016 total contribution to a staggering £22,000. This does not answer the question of whether or not it is enough and the committee will continue to monitor the situation and donate more when required, there is still money in the coffers but this was a significant percentage of the Trust funds.  Full financial details will be available at the AGM on Friday 25th November.

What is clear is that for Edinburgh Speedway to survive the support need to get right behind the team, with rain affected matches bringing lower than average crowds it is paramount that fans turn up in numbers to support the boys. The team have still been successful on track and have some big nights coming up in the form of two visits from nearest rivals Glasgow, a double header with Plymouth and Redcar, current league leaders Somerset and Peterborough bring Monarchs legend Craig Cook back to Armadale. The team are looking good to qualify for the play offs so this should be a very exciting end to the season and the defence of the Premier League title is still a very realistic target. With large crowds bringing back the spirit of 2014 and 2015 it could still be a great year for the Monarchs on the track. Off the track there is harder work ahead but the Trust will do everything it can to ensure there is an Edinburgh Monarchs in 2017, the supporters have backed the Trust superbly so far and with their assistance it can be done but everyone has to get behind the Club right now! Starting with tonight for what looks like a gloriously sunny Friday night at the Speedway.

If you would like to become a member of the Trust then please see the JOIN US page or if you would more information please don’t hesitate to CONTACT US.

Your Team Needs You- photo courtesy of Jack Cupido