Monarchs' chairman issued a warning to Monarchs' reserves to start scoring points or changes could be made. Of particular concern has been the problems in heat two. Last year, this invariably produced a 5-1 for Edinburgh in matches at Armadale and generally contributed points away from home. Heat two has yet to produce a Monarchs heat advantage.
The best achieved has been a 3-3 against the Czech tourists at Armadale, with Brian Turner and Christian Henry taking the minor placings, and a similar score in the Spring Trophy at Ashfield curtosy of a Christian Henry win over Aidan Collins. In the home leg of the Spring Trophy, heat two produced a 3-0 advantage to Glasgow. The Armadale matches against Sheffield and Workington both had 5-1 away advantages in the second heat. Things have been even worse away with a 5-0 deficit at Sheffield and 5-1 at Berwick.
The recent absence of Ross Brady has put more pressure on the reserves who normally have to take two of Brady's four programmed rides. Monarchs have three fixtures in four days over the coming weekend. Bewick visit Armadale on Friday, on Sunday Monarchs go to Glasgow and on Monday they face the trip to Workington. These matches, in particular the first two, are cruicial to Monarchs faltering chances of qualification for the Premier National Trophy. While it is expected that Brady will be fit for these fixtures, Monarchs still require something from the reserves.
Alex Harkess commented after last Friday's home defeat:
"It's like racing with one hand tied behind your back if your reserves fail to deliver the goods. Had our reserves go something from heat two, things could have been a lot better. But in matches that matter so far this year we have fallen behind in heat two. It's a major problem and one we must try to solve."
Heat two against Workington encapsulated the problems. Henry and Turner made the start and were on for a 5-1 although Turner looked uncomfortable holding off thrusts from Geoff Powell. Then on the last bend Henry fell collecting Turner. The heat was rerun with Henry excluded and, needless to say, Turner missed the start to give a 5-1 to the Comets.
"At least Christian looked competitive for the first time since he joined us. He hasn't yet perfected the art of passing anybody yet. However it was a big step forward for him, and I was pleased for him."
His blunder in heat two apart, Christian had a decent meeting aginst Workington. He was pulled out of his easiest ride in heat 8 to make way for a tactical substitute. But as well as his other two scheduled rides, Christian had two rider replacement outings for Ross Brady and one reserve replacement ride for Brian Turner.
No-one would have expected Christian to come near Peter Karlsson and Mick Powell in his rider replacement outing in heat 3. He didn't! In heat 4 he passed Lee Smethills after letting an early advantage slip to finish third behind Brent Werner. In his second rider replacement outing in heat 9, Christian will have been disappointed to come last behind Geoff Powell. He got his revenge of Geoff Powell with a third place in heat 12 and finished off with third place in heat 14 at the expense of Smethills after replacing Turner. Things were not so hopeful for Turner as Harkess commented:
"Brian lacks confidence, it's gone completely. Unfortunately we don't have anywhere he can race to try and regain it. He assures me that his troubled wrist is fine. It's not an easy situation we're in because there isn't a queue of people knocking at the door to take his place. Bt he's nowhere near up to the pace at the moment."
Blair Scott faced some critisism after the Workington defeat. Blair gated well but was suffering from a 'flat' engine and was passed three times in the opening six heats, twice by his old sparring partner Barry Campbell and once by Brent Werner. Blair was 'tac subbed' in heat 8 where he might have expected something and had sorted his bike out by heat 10 where he did well to keep Peter Karlsson in last place for a paid second behind Mick Powell. Harkess defended Scott:
"Blair might have been on the wrong bike and the points he did give away were disappointing beacuse they were lost as a result of people passing him. It was unfortunate that he had such a poor match because we needed everyone to be firing, and he wasn't. However, I've no concerns over Blair."
Harkess is not ready to give up on the fight for a qualification place in the Premier National Trophy. Monarchs recovered from a home defeat to Newcastle in the opening qualifying match to go all the way to the final. He declared that there is still everying to ride for:
"It's up to ourselves to knuckle down. We visit Glasgow and Workington on Sunday and Monday and we believe they are both winnable fixtures. We go into every match thinking we can win. We have better chances in some than others."
Harkess also demonstrated that form in pre-season qualifiers can be meaningless by refernce the 1999 qualification campaign:
"But let us not forget that Newcastle walked away with the group yet didn't make it in the Premier League. And Sheffield failed to make the Premier Trophy semi-finals, yet went on to win the Premier League. So anything can happen."
Harkess could also have cited the 1997 Premier League Cup qualification groups where Hull and Oxford made the early running in the Northern and Southern groups yet finished nowehere in the League. Edinburgh only just made it through the qualifiers and went on to win the Cup. Long Eaton were eliminated at the group stage yet finished as runners-up in the League as well as winning the Fours and the Pairs.
Harkess continued:
"However, our reserves need to start scoring for us to win matches convincingly. Winning at home by eight or ten points is our problem. If you let the opposing reserves score, you might win the match but not by much."
"I'm desperately hoping that Ross will be fit to ride simply because of the heavy schedule we have. If for any reason he doesn't ride, it will be extremely difficult for us simply because rider replacement simply cannot make up for his points absence."