Edinburgh Monarchs face the prospect of a daunting visit to Sheffield in the Cup Semi-Final should they overcome the 16-point first leg deficit and beat Newport in the second round tie at Armadale tonight.
Monarchs have ceratinly had it tough in the Cup this year. They faced bogy team Newcastle in the first round and then the very strong Newport outfit in the second round. Now they could have to contend with Premier League leaders Sheffield.
The full draw is:
Sheffield v Edinburgh or Newport
Exeter v Arena Essex or Swindon
This is reminiscent of 1997 when Monarchs last won the Cup. Then the Semi-Final between Edinburgh and Reading was seen by many as the real final. Then Monarchs had liitle difficulty seeing off Oxford in the final after a titantic struggle with the Championship winning Racers in the Semi-Final.
The other Semi-Final is more difficult to call. Swindon, who trail Arena Essex by 20 points in the second round match, came close to upsetting Exeter's unbeaten home record and have County Ground track specialists in Glenn Cunningham and Seemond Stephens. Arena Essex might be expected to give Exeter less trouble but do have former Exeter riders Roger Lobb and Leigh Lanham in their team.
The Semi-Final ties are due to be held in about a month's time.
In the meantime, Monarchs have to deal with Newport at Armadale. Newport have two excellent Armadale riders in Craig Watson and Frank Smart. They have recruited Brent Werner as guest to replace Anders Henriksson. The remainder of the team have no real Armadale track record although Scott Pegler might be good for a few points.
With Edinburgh needing to restrict Newport to 36 points at most, it is essential that the bottom end of the Monarchs team do not concede any soft points to Chris Neath, Andrew Appleton and Bobby Eldridge. Watson and Smart should certainly be good for double figures and Werner one of the best Amadale records of any visitor. He dropped only one point in four rides two weeks back when guesting for Monarchs.
[This news item was added on July 16th 1999]