SCOTLAND1314

Another good crowd, another meeting with excellent entertainment and another opponent sent home with a bloody nose. Last night saw lots of great racing with close racing and passing abundant but the highlight for me was the absolute belter of a race in heat 12, the three man battle 'tween Pijper, Tabaka and Bjerre. Pijper led off the start with Bjerre looking very fast behind him and Tabaka a little adrift in third. Theo came under constant pressure for the first couple of laps from Bjerre with the Dane trying inside and outside to get passed and almost getting there. This tussle seemed to allow wee Joe Tabaka to gain ground and begin to challenge Lasse, with the hard charging Hungarian generally taking the inside lines..... the young Dane finally succumbing to wee Joe and his bike wrenching last turn... with the home crowd roaring him to the finish line. Wow. I hope this race makes its way to Edinburgh Monarchs TV on the club website. So far this season we've had two meetings and in both we've seen races that would easily win race of the season. Roll on next Friday...

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1299

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1298 More wise words from Uncle B

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1296

There is another Edinburgh thread that states all the changes. The starting gate being one of them. Suffice to say the gate move was a great success, brings the fans closer to the start/end of race action and improves the atmosphere as well.

Yes start line has been moved to in front of the stand.

After a very positive start to the season, both on and off track, Friday will see the home leg of the KOC fixture with a very useful looking Leicester Lions team. 1. Cookie 2. Sneddon 3. Pijper 4. Fricke 5. Vissing 6. Helfer 7. Tabaka 1. Nieminen 2. Doolan 3. The littlest Bjerre 4. Graversen 5. Karlsson 6. Nielsen 7. Blackbird Any team that comes, to the Dale, with Kevin Doolan at second string has to be watched, as he has previously put in some very good scores at the San Siro of Scottish Speedway. I'm a fan of the littlest Bjerre and he's also good value. With Karlsson and Nieminen being no stranger to the Dale circuit... this could prove a good fixture if you are Leicester fan. This match will be very difficult for the home team but shows all the signs to be a belter of a fixture. Roll on Friday...

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1294&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook Fantastic news.... now to keep it going.

As well as the new 'meet and greet', which I thought helped generate a positive atmosphere, last night the Edinburgh promotion unveiled more improvements to the Armadale experience: Entrance to the stadium has been spruced up, new toilets, starting gate position moved, new mascot, upbeat music, new (old fashioned) rider parade.. but importantly the high standard of on track entertainment was maintained.

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1293&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=facebook Roll on Friday...

Standing shoulder to shoulder at the speedway ... when did I last do that... too long ago .. until tonight. Superb crowd in tonight to see the season opener... long may that continue. The promotion had improved their lot with improved toilets, improved surfacing into the stadium, improved (IMO) rider on bike parade, new music, new mascot, new starting gate position, new meet and greet.... hats off guys now just to keep the new found optimism going all season. However what wasn't new was the score line ... Monarch 59 Cookie 14 + 1 - Simply superb, from the gate or from behind no opponent could hold him up. Highlight being the stalking and passing of Screen in heat 1 Sneddon 7 + 1 - Good return from the skipper Pijper 14 + 1 - Superb from the gate but largely from the back with a super pass on Screen (heat 5) and coming out on top after a titanic battle with Grieves (heat 9) Fricke 2 + 1 - More on the pace tonight and better from the gate, could have been a better score as well if he'd avoided lifting a couple of times down in turn 3/4. Keep up the effort wee man. (nice to see Max out after the meeting looking for more practice) Vissing 8 + 2 - Very solid performance for first time on the track Helfer 5 + 1 - Decent score Tabaka 9 + 1 - Super score considering he was moved into tougher rides on a couple of occasions Glasgow 31 Screen 4 - Suffered injured foot in heat 11 and didn't re-appear - Hope he is ok. Ringwood 4 + 1 - Looked to be struggling with the tight circuit until he was a surprise winner of heat 11 Wright 6 - Decent score but I'd imagine Glasgow will be expecting more of him Bager 5 + 1 - Good last race to come from 3rd to 1st Grieves 8 - Has done much better around the Dale Horwood - 0 Struggled Jacobs 4 + 1 - Nice performance for the chap A big well done to the Edinburgh Monarchs promotion, last season brought them to their knees but with a little help they've come out punching in 2013... now just to keep it going. Nice touch as well to see the Glasgow promotion handing out flyers for their racing inside the stadium. A new dawn for Scottish speedway....? I hope so.

Weather (10 miles from track) is dry and warmer than it has been all week!! Shurely shome mishtake... nope. Roll on tonight at Scotland's San Siro of Speedway..... The Dale.

The weather here (approx 10 miles from Armadale) has been glorious all week, blue sky, sunshine with a drying breeze... I know I've tempted fate.... hopefully stays the same for tomorrow... Roll on Friday...

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1290 Really nice touch by the promotion... hopefully Uncle B will receive some nice comments about the changes to the Armadale race night experience...

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs speedway http://www.edinburghmonarchs.co/news/article.asp?id=1287 A positive message and much needed media coverage ... radio and TV !! Roll on Friday...

Courtesy of Edinburgh Monarchs website http://tickets.monarchs.biz/events/2013.asp Sounds like the promotion have been hard at work during the close season upgrading the Armadale experience. They received hundreds of replies to their end of season survey and it sounds as if they've acted on the responses. Roll on Friday....

Might just be what the Monarchs need, a bit of help for Cookie away from home. I had a quick scan of Vissing's scores on small(ish) tight circuits and they aren't great but he does have a reasonable number of good scores e.g. when with Peterborough at Eastbourne....at Belle Vue and Wolverhampton with Birmingham. So it looks promising.

Cheers. A maximum ... jings that could come in handy.

Somebody mentioned he rode against Glasgow at Ashfield what did he score through there?

It should be interesting to see how Claus Vissing gets his way around the track on Friday. I wasn't aware that he'd never ridden the place before but he sure is exciting to watch.... so far.

Phew. Scottish speedway fans took a collective sigh of relief during the winter months and thankfully both clubs live to fight another day..... Edinburgh (I'd guess) 1. Craig Cook 2. Derek Sneddon 3. Theo Pijper 4. Max Fricke 5. Claus Vissing 6. Marcel Helfer 7. Joe Tabaka Glasgow Tigers (I'd guess) 1 Joe Screen 2 Joey Ringwood 3 James Grieves 4 Henning Bager 5 James Wright 6 Harley Horwood 7 Joe Jacobs The home promotion have pieced together a very exciting team on paper and its first appearance, at Berwick, has shown that it has the makings to be exciting on the track as well. Glasgow have brought back some old faces, a new experienced face and some young and aspiring talent. Here's hoping that both club's efforts will be rewarded in the coming weeks and months with improved attendances and lots of exciting speedway. I can't wait....

A close contest last night. Largely gate and go with the occasional decent tussle. Wee Joe's 1/2 turn in heat two to get him through from the back was classy. Wethers doggedly keeping the flying Cookie behind him. Claus off 15m good stuff.... Given that many of the Monarchs won't have turned a wheel not even at practice very decent show by them. No surprise that those lacking track time didn't score that well. Berwick look solid enough and won't come across too many like Cookie so heat leaders should eventually score more and all other things being equal should feature in the top half of the league.

Ta

Excellent thank you.

What's the chances of this going ahead? Is the weather forecast favourable? Thanks in advance.