Monarchs' injury crisis lessened slightly when it was confirmed that Justin Elkins would return at Number 2 at Arena Essex on Friday. This will take some pressure off the Monarchs' reserves who have been taking three of Elkins's four rides during his absence.
Stewart McDonald had earlier been ruled out from a comeback in the Cup although he is hoping to be back for the Young Shield next month. So Elkins's return is well timed.
There is no good news about Brian Turner. He is definately out of this weekend's Cup Final. He will be replaced at Arena Essex by Gary Phelps who appeared for Monarchs at Newport and Reading last week. Gary started the season at reserve for Swindon but suffered an early injury and was replaced by Steve Bishop of St. Austell. Bishop's form was sensational and there was never any prospect of Phelps coming back after he regained fitness. He made appearances for Berwick and Workington without scoring many points.
Phelps recently replaced Wayne Barrett in the St. Austell team and impressed when the Gulls visited Linlithgow. He came in to the Monarchs side at Newport and beat Chris Neath in heat 1 ending up with two points plus one bonus from three rides. He did better at Reading with a heat 2 win and took five paid seven points from five rides. Then Gary guested for Newcastle at the Isle of Wight on Tuesday and was trully sensational scoring ten paid eleven from five rides. He was beaten by Tommy Palmer in heat 2 but remained unbeaten by a home rider apart from heat 8 when he retired. Wins in heats 12 and 14 helped Newcastle to an unlikely win.
The number 6 position has not yielded many points for Monarchs this season away from home for David McAllan, Jon Swales, James Birkinshaw. Prior to Phelps's five plus two at Reading the best away score for a Monarchs number six was Birkinshaw's three plus two at Newcastle.
The number 2 position has also failed to provide many points away from home. Blair Scott and Stewart McDonald have not really performing in that position. Anything that Elkins can score at Arena, as is the case with Phelps, will be something of a bonus. Monarchs won at Arena in the Premier League in May and Blair Scott picked up one point from number 2 while David McAllan failed to score at number 6.
Monarchs can expect a tough match at Arena Essex and the emphasis is likely to be on containment to give a managable target for the Armadale leg of Saturday.