Edinburgh completed the pre-season phase of their year against Hull at Armadale and started the main season at Arena Essex.
With Monarchs having struggled in the latter end of last season due to injuries, they hoped to have put all that behind them with the start of the new season. Unfortunately it was not the case and Monarchs suffered through injuries to Brian Turner and Ross Brady. This involved both riders missing matches and then returning when less than 100% fit. This all contributed to a troubled Premier National Trophy qualification phase.
With most, if not all, of the fancied teams in the Northern Group, it was never going to be easy to take one of the two qualification places even with a full team. Monarchs made life hard for themselves with a poor performance against Workington at Armadale minus Ross Brady. They then partially redeemed themselves with a good win over Berwick taking the bonus point in the process. Edinburgh then threw away the match at Glasgow before going down at Workington. A fighting win at Newcastle kept Monarchs in contention but the failure to take something from the match at Hull more or less killed off their chances. The final nail in their coffin was provided when they lost at Sheffield by a big margin and forfeited the bonus point one day later in the process.
Monarchs produced some patchy home form. Their only convincing home win was against a clearly understrength Newcastle side. A weak Glasgow side without James Grieves took Monarchs to a last heat decider at Armadale as did Sheffield and Hull. Add in the defeat by Workington, also after a last heat decider and Edinburgh's Armadale form was well below the standard of the past three years.
Monarchs were a bit more resiliant away from home than of late but this has tended to be down to the heroics of Robert Eriksson and Peter Carr with limited support provided by Blair Scott, Ross Brady and Christian Henry. Monarchs did well to take the bonus point from the fixtures against Berwick, Hull and to a lesser extent Glasgow and Newcastle. The loss of the bonus point to Sheffield by the margin of of 22 points was not encouraging.
With only a handful of fixtures to complete, Hull seem certain to qualify for the semi-finals and join Workington, Swindon and Exeter. Monarchs could just about make it if Sheffield lose heavily at Newcastle and Hull lose their last two two home matches against Glasgow and Workington by improbably large margins.
Current results and tables are as follows:
Premier National Trophy Results
Premier National Trophy League Tables
The ultimate problem with Monarchs was that the balance of the team was all wrong. The team was built around a strong top two in Peter Carr and Robert Eriksson with Kevin Little and Ross Brady supposed to be competing for the third heat leader spot. It was hoped that Brian Turner would score points from reserve to compete with Blair Scott for a second string place and that Christian Henry would score points as he adapted to local conditions.
Unfortunately it didn't quite work out as intended. Brian Turner was injured in his first heat and it soon became clear that the old injury aggrevated by the fall was just not clearing up. Brian was not scoring and this put unwanted pressure on Christian Henry. Things were little better after Brian was replaced by David McAllan as David failed to start a match and stand-in Jon Swales struggled to score consisently.
Kevin Little had something on a nightmare start to the season blowing engine after engine and struggled in the number one spot, this put pressure on Blair Scott. Blair had made a great start prior to the National Trophy qulaifiers but faded somewhat. Kevin's problems were not solved by a move to number three or to number five. Even when he dropped down to second string the points failed to come. Monarchs rightly have stuck with Kevin. Ross also suffered. He made a fair start but had disastrous Under-21 final at Armadale and then broke three toes in a trials bike accident. This caused him to miss two or three matches. He came back when way below fitness and missed rides in a couple of meetings because of this.
Putting this together, Edinburgh had an outstanding top end, with Carr and Eriksson way exceeding expectations, a soggy middle order and a very weak bottom end despite great improvement by Christian Henry. The three 'improvers' were Carr, Eriksson, and Henry. All three were averaging more away from home that their starting average. Blair Scott was marginally down while Kevin Little and Ross Brady were both well down of their starting average. The positive effect of this was that the Green Sheet Averages left Monarchs the opportunity to strengthen-up with five and a half points to replace Brian Turner. The problem was that there was no-one currently riding who was available on the sort of points Monarchs had to play with. Then Newcastle's drawn out restructuring process left Will Beveridge out of work. Monarchs moved swiftly to sign him. The Hexham born rider initially hesitated because of concerns over travelling but soon signed.
With the the team to be declared next week, Edinburgh look more the part. Eriksson and Carr seem to get better and better. Kevin Little, who has shown a return to form dropping only one point at Arena Essex, will be back at heat leader. Will Beveridge, Blair Scott and Ross Brady should provide competition for that third heat leader spot. Blair Scott will be down at reserve next week and this will give the bottom end of the team far more scoring potential. Although Christian Henry is currently injured, the new averages mean that Jon Swales can now deputize if necessary.
Although the June averages have yet to take effect, there is only two more qualifying matches to complete before the cut-off date for the July averages on June 15th. These are the Armadale Premier League clash against Reading and the Glasgow match at Armadale. The following week sees Monarchs take on Arena Essex in the first round of the Cup and this will not count towards the official averages. As things stand Kevin Little appears certain to stay at heat leader through to the end of July. It also seems possible that Blair Scott will move back up to second string with Ross Brady or Will Beveridge dropping to reserve. It is too close to call and anything can happen.
Those who recall Monarchs two years in the combined British Premier League in 1995 and 1996 will recall that riders rotated between postions. Of the team regulars only Mike Faria stayed at heat leader throughout. All others, except for Lawrence Hare (in 1995) and Mick Powell (in 1996) had spells at heat leader, second string and reserve. Les Collins, Kenny McKinna, Jan Andersen, Robban Johansson, and Scott Lamb were known to move directly from reserve to heat leader and back again. This gave the team a sort of dynamic in that an out of form rider would get a spell at reserve to help regain their confidence.
This movement hasn't been much in evidence since the move to Armadale. Peter Carr, Robert Eriksson and Kenny McKinna remained at heat leader throughout 1997. The same happened in 1998 with Peter Carr, Kenny McKinna, and Kevin Little and also Carr, Little and James Grieves in 1999. There was limited movement between second string and reserve.
This year Ross has had a brief taste of action at heat leader and could well face a month at reserve. Kevin Little has been down at second string for the first team. There will be competition for positions throughout the team and that can only be good. Monarchs seem assured of having one very strong rider at reserve at any time. This can cover all sorts of 'holes' elsewhere in the team.
It is too soon to judge if the revised Monarchs team will be good enough to challenge for silverware, but it certainly has a solid look to it. That fact that the team won their first Premier League match away at Arena Essex despite being without Blair Scott and Christian Henry is very encouraging. With a home match against Reading and an away match at Glasgow coming up next weekend, Edinburgh have the chance to take an early stranglehold on the Premier League table before the visit of title favourites Workington to Armadale. This might enable them to put to one side the disappointments of the Premier National Trophy qualifiers.