King Jamie

A dominant display from the Monarchs gives Rory Schlein another appearance at sunny Armadale prior to his retirement A couple of early crashes left me even more unsure as to whether we could pull the deficit back. However, when Anders Rowed into the stadium and stuck his oar in to deliver an excellent heat 6 victory, I settled down a bit. Mixed fortunes for our young German superstar. Unceremoniously dumped on the shale in heat 1 before 2 wins, 2 third places and 2 ducks. More than acceptable for a reserve. Hats off also to young Edwards. A vital heat 12 win, with the 5-1 completed by the glue that is Kye Thomson The Weegies didn't have the best of nights. Certainly Mr Karlsson was looking a tad uppity at one point, invading the track with the riders already at tapes. Not entirely sure what that was about. Young Brennan put yet another nail in the trick track myth. Outwith the predictable heat 15 cheating, I was very impressed with his evening's work. Talking of heat 15, why did Cook stop racing? Poor refereeing putting the red lights on before Worrall crossed the line at the end of lap 2. Could have and should have been awarded instead of us having to win the tie twice. On to tonight and, I must admit, I'm not overly fussed either way. As I've stated previously on here, we don't deserve to be in the play offs and really shouldn't have any chance of being Champions this season. Don’t get me wrong, it's good to beat Glasgow in any competition, but it won't ruin my winter if we don't emerge victorious.

Many riders like sunny Armadale. It's most certainly not a trick track if you approach it with the correct mental attitude.

Edinburgh can lose by 12 and still qualify

Will the third attempt at running this fixture be the first ever Tuesday night meeting at sunny Armadale? I'm struggling to think of another one.

Nicola Out!

Flawless refereeing performance from Sir Jim. One in the eye for his detractors.

Last I saw MPT, he had his pinkie stuck in the neck of a bottle. I hope the fire services were successful in freeing the poor chap.

It would be nothing short of farce and a major embarrassment for speedway if Edinburgh were to win the league this season. I know we must all bow down to the insane American obsession of back door winners and second chances aplenty but any team finishing a distant fifth during the qualifying campaign shouldn't even be given the opportunity to plunge yet another dagger into the heart of a once beautiful sport.

Of course! Not sure how I managed to get that wrong

If that's 2016 you're referring to, Glasgow staged the first leg at Ashfield on the Friday night. The second leg took place 24 hours later at sunny Armadale

I trust the one leg of the cup match against Glasgow would be the away leg? Given that we're not at Birmingham 'til Wednesday night, it wouldn't exactly leave much time to produce a programme for Friday, let alone trying to sell hospitality space, etc. Regardless, the BlueBus Bears will be in town. Roll on Friday...

If he was struggling and losing money at the start of September, it follows that he was also struggling and losing money at the end of August. Therefore, if he wished to quit, at least have the courtesy to do it before the deadline and give us a chance to replace him. Good evening Mr Bagpuss. For the avoidance of doubt, I did like Nathan Greaves. I was happy when we signed him. "He'll do a job" I thought. And he did for a while. Seems like the crash at Beirut was the beginning of the end for him. Told you it was a second rate ploughed field

Did the transfer deadline apply to the NL as well as the top two leagues? If so, I can understand why the powers that be wouldn't allow William to sign for Armadale. Going beyond that, he is therefore not in a declared 1-7 and so can't guest in Championship or above. If the deadline does not apply, then the decision would be illogical, albeit not completely unsurprising. Nathan Greaves has a lot to answer for, leaving not one but two teams well and truly in the lurch. I hope he's proud of himself.

How very dare they Factually incorrect. --------------------------------------------------------- Well done Monarchs. I'm interested to know what would've happened had we lost 53-37 instead of 52-38. In that scenario, the F and A pts would've been: Edinburgh 909 - 880 Scunny 908 - 879 Both teams on +29. Would Edinburgh be declared above Scunny, due to one extra race point having been scored (909 vs 908)? Or would another tiebreak method have been used?

That's what happens when you leave a top notch track like sunny Armadale and spend too long at a second rate ploughed field like Beirut. Would be interesting to see him on a speedway bike, although it's most likely he would end the evening pointless.

There is no better speedway referee than Sir Jim. A more honest man you could not wish to meet

RIP BobC. I didn't have the pleasure of meeting him in person but I believe he was a Wednesday fan, so obviously a good sort

It's a sad day when a club Legend loses his team place due to the faltering efforts of the top 3. Good luck William and thank you for your service. However, as one door closes... Rowe, Rowe, Rowe your boat Gently down the stream Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily Anders has found a new team.

Agree with all of that. You're very lucky if you could hear Rory's interview. Sadly, the tannoy didn't seem to be giving 100% in our section. We even managed to miss the announcement that young Hume was replacing Stefan Neilsen. Given my comments earlier on this thread, I should say Masters was decent. Not before time. There were a couple of blips though. Yet another episode of Sleepy Sam. This week's beneficiary was the good twin. We also had an episode of Fireman Sam, although his hose wasn’t quite long enough to reel in Daniel King. Those two slips put paid to his chances of emulating the great Barry Campbell. The bottom 3 tried but were completely outclassed by their counterparts in a team which has been built properly. Special mention to Danyon Hume. Very impressive. Not the best of meetings for unKempt, although he did improve as the night went on. If he's available, I would still definitely attempt to sign him. Severely doubt he would say yes but no harm in asking. As a team, we've now scored 40 (twice), 41, 42, 43, 44, 46 and 47 in our last 8 meetings. Nowhere near good enough, especially considering half of them were at home. We haven't scored 50 since 16 July. Now I'm a patient chap, and I'm well aware that winning every meeting 46-44 would still deliver trophies but the current formula just isn't working. Chop chop...

I blame the stream.

What is Brennan's average for guest purposes? He can't use his 2021 Eastbourne average. For Belle Vue, he's only listed as 4*. Do they have to apply his actual (apparently top secret) BV average and then convert it to Championship (x 1.5 if I remember correctly)? Or is there another method?

Quite ironic that Worrall has pulled out due to his finger when, in reality, the top 3 need to pull their collective fingers out. Prior to the defeat by Glasgow, their home averages were: Pickering 10.43 Masters 10.08 Worrall 8.87 (5 meetings each) However, the last 3 meetings (2 for Worrall) have seen a massive dropping of standards: Masters 8.53 Pickering 8.27 Worrall 7.50 As a trio, they've only won 15 of their last 38 races at sunny Armadale, which is unacceptable. Thankfully, the bottom 3 continue to plug away and scrape some vital points together. And all hail the glue that is Kye Thomson. Well done son

Worrall has only bagged double figures 3 times in 7 home league meetings and has gone off the boil a bit recently. Rejigging the riding order was a management decision. Rider replacement could've operated at number 5. I understand the lack of guest options available but I trust Richard Lawson was washing his hair last night? Anyway, I can't say I enjoyed the meeting. Hats off to Kent for their performance. I can't quite decide whether I'm annoyed with our largely dismal (again) showing or if I should be relieved we somehow got out of jail to clinch what I think is the first ever 44-44 draw at sunny Armadale. Good to see young Crang score his first points for the club. His evening reminded me so much of the night Shane McCabe guested for us. An awful night, with riders falling and stopping left, right and centre but Shane merrily trundled his way around to score 6+2 from his 3 rides. As others have mentioned, Nicholls was a joy to watch. He made Masters look stupid in heat 6. I applauded the move at the time and would've done so again at the end had he not decided to be a lazy auld git and head straight back to the pits. I could just hear the instructions from above... "come on old chap,,no time to wave to the minions, there's potential rain in the air you know. Back to the pits you go. Chop chop." One other thing. What's with the referees recently? Last week, the bloke forgot to put the exclusion lights on for Crump (heat 13) and Flint (heat 14). Last night it happened again. No light for the disrespectful Starke (heat 7). Has Mr Campbell asked them to save on bulbs?

Newcastle have a 3 star allowance at reserve, due to their initial team building averages being so low. Therefore, no need to restrict your options to 1 star riders.

It was more due to his opponent in that particular race than the man himself. That said, we do actually speak to each other nowadays, albeit Sneddon's visits to sunny Armadale are even less frequent than mine. Our 'moment of truce' came in the Gents toilets () following the 2014 Play-Off Final victory over Somerset and moments after the skipper had announced his retiral from the sport.