The last time Berwick visited Armadale they were beaten 62-28. Berwick had already made two team changes with Scott Robson and Scott Lamb replacing Will Beveridge and David McAllan. Since then a further change with Wayne Carter coming in for the injured Bevan Compton.
Berwick have a strange team structure with Adrian Rymel topping their averages on 7.21 (apart from Carter on a coverted average of 7.76) while Scott Lamb is at the bottom on 4.65. Rymel has been impressive recently and did a good job guesting for Edinburgh last Sunday. He has yet to come to terms with Armadale and failed to score on his last visit. Scott Robson can be expected to score some points but Carter's Armadale record is poor. Robson went well guesting for Stoke at Armadale a couple of weeks ago.
Michal Makovsky was top scorer (and the only race winner) for Berwick last time. He suffered an injury in the World Cup in Poland last week and will miss the match. Because he has dropped to number five in the Berwick averages, rider replacement will be used. One of Makovsky's rides can be taken by David Meldrum but the remainder will be taken by the strong Berwick reserve duo of Josef Franc and Scott Lamb.
Rory Schlein continues at number six in the absence of Dalle Andersson while rider replacement will operate for the Slovenia-bound Blair Scott. This will give extra rides to Jan Andersen, Christian Henry and the reserves. Edinburgh should not suffer from the absence of Blair.
There is still no decision from Peter Carr if he is to ride on Friday. There was also some concern about the fitness of Rory Schlein. This followed a fall in heat two at Ashfield on Sunday where he suffered a hand injury. Rory continued to ride in some discomfort where he failed to score. Rory was also in some pain when riding for Sheffield at Newcastle in the Cup where he also failed to score. It appears that the injury is nothing worse than bruising. Rory is due to ride for Sheffield in the return cup match against Newcastle before returning to Armadale on Friday.
It is hard to see beyond a big Edinburgh win with the home heat leaders likely to dominate most races. However the Monarchs' reserves could find the going a bit tough against Scott Lamb and Josef Franc. If Ben Shields and Rory Schlein can continue with the form shown last week and get amongst the points then a very big win is on the cards.
In the previous match Peter Carr, Robert Eriksson, and Jan Andersen all collected maximums while Christian Henry only dropped points to Makovsky in heats 11 and 14.
Teams for the Premier League Match at Armadale on Friday 13th July (start time 7.30, doors open 6.30) are:
Edinburgh Forth 2 Monarchs: Robert Eriksson, Christian Henry, Peter Carr (capt.) or guest replacement, Rider replacement for Blair Scott, Jan Andersen, Rory Schlein, Ben Shields.
Blackshaws Berwick Bandits: Adrian Rymel, rider replacement for Michal Makovsky, Wayne Carter, David Meldrum, Scott Robson, Scott Lamb, Josef Franc.
[This news item was added on July 11th 2001]