King Jamie

As I didn't own a teddy bear named Dan in my younger years, my tribute to the great Mr Luckhurst shall remain indefinitely 🙂

In fairness, you should've pointed out I'm talking garbage. "4 riders with ambitions of being heat leaders in the Championship" refers to the bottom 4. The other 3 have already achieved that goal!

Surely all seven should have ambitions of being a heat leader in the Championship? If not, I would suggest they're in the wrong job.

Bit harsh. Ashfield was modernised years ago.

Are there stats for this type of thing? I don't doubt that Harris is near / at the top, but it would be interesting to see who else was up there. Separate tables for Premiership and Championship would also be welcome as it should show the difference between the quality of opposition. For example, does Charles Wright make more passes in the top flight or second tier. Does he score most of his points from the gate at Redcar but have to do more from the back at Oxford? I wonder how many 'surprises' we would find in the top 20.

Bit early to be switching on the Christmas lights.

May just have to try 'that little bit extra' in every meeting, as opposed to in the play offs.

The circumstances are different. Gusts, on the Monday, told Oxford he couldn't ride on the Wednesday. He then rode on the Tuesday but missed Wednesday, as promised. Silly boy Francis. Nagel missed a meeting on the Tuesday, then rode on the Wednesday. If he rides on Friday, I can't see a problem. If he misses Friday, then we can discuss potential bans. But not beforehand.

Well done Glasgow. The people's champions 2025.

I trust the co-commentator on BSN will receive a fine for 'enjoying' the scenes and therefore, apparently, promoting violence. Load of nonsense. If there were scraps (handbags) at every meeting, the terraces wouldn't be so empty.

Easy win for a Tiggers team strengthened by the absence of David Nagel's Scandinavian. We'll be done over Hook, line and sinker. Our collective bunch of third heat leaders will have no answer and will be lucky to score 40. Can't wait...

8 from his first 3 rides at Redcar says you're talking drivel.

R/R for Victor, at first glance, looks like it's weakening the Monarchs quite substantially, especially given his home average of 9.23. However, from his 3 meetings at number 1, he's only averaging 6.77. Compare this to the 'replacement 4': JS - 7.77 MC - 6.46 KT - 5.82 MPT - 5.67 ...it may just about be manageable. Castagna and MPT in heat 13. I may have to hide behind the home straight sofa at that point!

While last night was possibly the most comfortable 4-point victory ever witnessed, yet again the lack of top end strength hit Monarchs hard when it mattered most, allowing the Bluebus Bears to collect the aggregate bonus point. Heats 13 and 15 remain a major annoyance this season. We've ridden 16 meetings in all competitions. Removing Berwick away last Saturday (abandoned after heat 12), this leaves 15 meetings. In 11 of those, we've lost a 5-1 in either 13 or 15. Last night was, however, the first time it's happened in both races. The only advantages we've gained were at home to Berwick (BSN, heat 13 4-2) and Workington (KOC, heat 15 5-1). No advantages have been earned on the road. Aggregate scores: Heat 13 - Monarchs 37-53 Opponents Heat 15 - Monarchs 29-61 Opponents That's a shocking amounts of points to concede and have to make up elsewhere across the board. There are some positives though. With the exception of the aforementioned Berwick abandonment, we've scored at least 40 points in every meeting. At least we're competitive then! To last night and it was good to see Justin Sedgmen finally collect his first home race win since 23 May (or 7 days earlier if you only include 'average counting' meetings). He must've been chuffed with that, as he rattled off another 3 in quick succession. For the Bears, Daniel King surely must be one of the best ever visitors to sunny Armadale. His only points dropped came in heat 9 when he was partaking in some Ace team riding, not that young Pijper needed any help to keep the blundering Michele Castagna at the back, the skipper eventually plopping into his favourite bend 4 air fence panel on lap 3. That basically summed up the Italian's evening. It's fair to say the pizza was somewhat flat. MPT continues to frustrate. A rider I've always liked (it's the name!), we're still awaiting him to show the kind of form which saw him pass Sam Masters from the back on more than one occasion at the Cardiff of the North. Always seemingly able to find grip where others couldn't, it simply hasn't happened for him as yet in a Monarchs race suit. His night ended up with him dribbling into the same air fence panel as Castagna. Perhaps he was told it tasted nice? That moment of what some may describe as blatant cheating should've opened the door for Victor P to at least split the visiting duo in the rerun. Alas, sadly not. The Swede looked shockingly slow and drifted so far off the line he pretty much invited Charles Wright up his inside. And, just to prove it wasn't a one-off, he looked even slower in heat 15. Any chance we can move him back to reserve? Pretty please?

Don't you remember Drew Kemp, Jason Edwards and Anders Rowe riding for the Monarchs in recent years? That's not an exclusive list of course. It goes back several years. Michael Coles, Lawrence Hare, Jamie and Jeremy Luckhurst, Justin Elkins, Justin Walker, John Wainwright. Much more recently, Ryan Fisher, Sam Masters, etc. Probably loads more. If Glasgow are paying extras (according to Mr Blobby), surely that's classed as competitive advantage. The promotions have a choice. Pay it or don't pay it. Simples. All's fair in sport and all that.