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This swings things back in Poole's favour. Having just lost the 3 points gained at Eastbourne, if Monarchs lose another 3 tonight it could put a top 6 place in jeopardy. Hope Drew Kemp takes a very quick liking to the Armadale track.

Richie Worrall now pulled out again. Nick Morris guests.

Kemp has never ridden at Armadale before. He guested for Edinburgh at Berwick earlier in the season.

Richie back. Drew Kemp replaces injured Luke Crang. Weather looks good. Should be a cracking meeting. From Monarchs website: Poole's proposed visit to Armadale earlier in the month was postponed, but this Friday we will have the big showdown with the Pirates in excellent form hoping to extend their lead at the top of the table. They have a team with very few weaknesses – highly experienced heat leaders in Rory Schlein, Danny King and Stevie Worrall plus talented backup men. These now include the young Dane Benjamin Basso who is rated very highly and made a good start on his debut last weekend. It will be Poole's first ever visit to the West Lothian circuit. The What the Fork Monarchs will be pleased to welcome back Richie Worrall who missed last Friday's match. The original assessment of two broken fingers was downgraded to one cracked finger and he reports that he has no problems gripping things, advancing his return to the track. Monarchs had put Nick Morris on standby as a guest had this been required. They do have to replace reserve Luke Crang who damaged his knee during last Friday's match (in which he gained 5 points). He has been ruled out and Drew Kemp will stand in, making his Armadale debut. It is the last scheduled visit for Rory Schlein who arrived in the UK twenty years ago and plans a Farewell meeting in October. He spent his first four formative seasons with the Monarchs. (It is possible of course that the clubs could meet again in either the Knockout Cup or the Championship Playoffs). He would also be first on the list should there be space in the Armadale fixture list for a Scottish Open Championship this season – Rory has won it four times and has a burning ambition to make it five! Amongst the results that have taken them to the top, Poole managed to win at Leicester, and scored no less than 61 at Newcastle. Team manager Alex Harkess has expressed some disappointment with recent Monarchs' displays at home and is looking for better. "Amongst the Pirates, Rory and Steve Worrall are riders who we always associate with our club since they did so much when they were here. I welcome them and their team mates, but exactly as with Scott Nicholls last week, it's a warm welcome but I hope you don't have too good a night! I'd like to believe that for once we will do what we should be doing at home." As with all Armadale matches this season Friday's match will be Live Streamed, however the stream will be available only to those outwith a 25 mile radius of the track. Anyone within that limit but unable to attend should email info@edinburghmonarchs.co.uk WHAT THE FORK MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), William Lawson, Kye Thomson, Josh Pickering, Richie Worrall, Drew Kemp (guest), Nathan Greaves. PIRATES: Rory Schlein, Benjamin Basso, Stevie Worrall, Stefan Neilsen, Danny King (capt.), Ben Cook, Danyon Hume.

Friday Focus review of the match including the fantastic heat 6 pass by Scott Nicholls here: Friday Focus: Monarchs v Kent | EMTV | Edinburgh Monarchs Speedway | Official Club Website

Well done to Kent on an excellent performance tonight. They really should've had at least 3 points. 10 heat winners in a row from heat 4 to heat 13 is unprecedented for an away team at Armadale. After a poor night the home side showed some grit and determination over the last 3 heats to grab an unlikely draw. Kye Thomson has been a major success this season, but he's been creeping/rolling at the start for a good few weeks now. He needs to cut that out - he's shown he doesn't need to do it to win races. William Lawson really only contributed one third place ahead of Ben Morley in 4 races. The track wasn't great tonight - obviously prepared for potential rain - but there was still several good races. Scotty Nicholls pass on Sam Masters in Heat 6 was sublime. Great to see Cameron Heeps back to form. He always rode Armadale well. And good to see Luke Crang pick up his first Championship points.

Richie still above Josh (8.47 to 8.4) so everyone can take one of Richie's rides. But one will still have to be taken by William or Nathan (or Luke).

From Monarchs website: Kent Kings come to Armadale this Friday in a Championship fixture, the first time we've ever hosted the Kings who have moved into our league this season. Star Kings are Scott Nicholls (perhaps the best visiting rider over the last few seasons) plus former GP rider Troy Batchelor, Paul Starke and popular ex-Monarch Cameron Heeps. The Kings beat Monarchs by three points on their own track a couple of weeks ago, and showed how much they have improved recently by hammering in 57 against Berwick this week. So it is sure to be a tough match, with Monarchs likely to be without Richie Worrall after his high speed crash last Friday. That has still to be confirmed but if Richie decides he is not ready Monarchs will use a guest or rider replacement. With that in mind the riding order has been altered. Team manager Alex Harkess said "Scott Nicholls has been a class act and I hope he will be again on Friday – though one class act in their team is enough! He's a very, very good and accomplished rider. We also welcome our friend Cameron Heeps again, he hasn't had a great year and we hope things turn round for him eventually. It's a match we expect to win and we'll be disappointed if it is as close as last week again." As with all Armadale matches this season Friday's match will be Live Streamed, however the stream will be available only to those outwith a 25 mile radius of the track. Anyone within that limit but unable to attend should email info@edinburghmonarchs.co.uk WHAT THE FORK MONARCHS: Sam Masters (capt.), William Lawson, Richie Worrall, Kye Thomson, Josh Pickering, Luke Crang, Nathan Greaves. TOUCHTEC KINGS: Troy Batchelor, Ben Morley, Paul Starke, Cameron Heeps, Scott Nicholls (capt.), Ryan Terry Daley, Dan Gilkes Looking forward to this. Think it will be close.

Don't think so. If the accident hadn't have happened Monarchs would've gone into the final heat 2 points up and I think Sam & Josh would have got at least a 3-3 against Bjarne & Jason (or possibly Bjarne & Leon). But a very impressive performance from Plymouth who gave a very good account of themselves. Ruml, Keleher & Cook all did well on their first Armadale appearance. For the home side the Thomson/Pickering pairing got them out of jail. Great to see Crumpie roll back the years and he gave a great interview talking about bringing on the next generation of riders and reminiscing about riding at Powderhall back in the day. Hope no lasting damage for Bjarne or Richie.

R/R for William Lawson tonight (awaiting result of a Covid test). Kye and the reserves can cover.

Luke Crang is on the list as a 2* Rising Star. Nathan Greaves is on the list as a 4*, so can't be used as a Rising Star in the Championship.

Good to see Nathan back for the Monarchs tonight. He seemed to be steadily improving both home and away before his recent injury setback. Looks like he drops to reserve for August with, presumably, William replacing him at #2. I think that gives the team a better balance for a busy month.

Ulrich's new average from 1/8 is 7.96 so you'll have up to that (8.36 at home) to use for a guest. Makes the likes of Danny King, Steve Worrall or Adam Ellis available to use for any August matches.

Easy to say with the benefit of hindsight but it's quite conceivable that R/R would have provided exactly the same scores in each of the relevant heats (e.g. Nicol in ht4, Wells in ht7, Cook in ht11, Jensen in ht13). Also it might have been expected that a motivated Etheridge (against a team that he reportedly hates) would score to his average. And there's the risk in using R/R for a heat leader, that another of your riders gets injured during the match. So not such a cut and dried bad decision imo.

Superbly entertaining and exciting meeting today. The Ashfield track providing some brilliant racing. Cookie wasn't making any starts but had three fantastic wins from the back over Worrall, Thomson then Masters before Sam got revenge in the final heat. If William Lawson had held position in all his heats he would have scored 8 paid 11. Only time Monarchs were ahead was the end of heat 15.

It was a nice mild evening last night, but not that hot. There was certainly no dust but some on the third bend did get covered in flying muck during some heats!

Got to agree about the track. My heart always sinks when I arrive at the stadium on a fine day to find the track's been flooded - which happens quite a lot. It always produces terrible racing for the first few heats, with riders struggling to turn, then improves gradually to produce better but still not great racing. Think they might need to look along the M8 to get some advice on track preparation (used to be the other way round). On a positive note - Danny Ayres! The most exciting rider on track and a great character off it - check out his interview on this weeks Friday Focus https://youtu.be/mDOzLGyBs9U

Enjoyable night's racing on a well prepared track - standout heat 11 with Heeps going round both Worrall & Clegg for the win. Great to see Josh back and William getting in the mix and picking up some good points. Newcastle hampered by their guest not going well, but well served by their main 4. Not sure if 14 is going to be enough as Monarchs have been just getting to the mid-30s in most of their away matches. For a cup semi-final against Newcastle the crowd did not look particularly good, which must be a worry for the promotion.

It's a shame Josh Pickering is not back for this as he rode very well on his first visit there guesting for Leicester. But Paul Starke should be a decent replacement as he went well there in Glasgow's victory and rode very well against the Monarchs at Ashfield last Sunday. I think Eastbourne and Armadale are a similar size but maybe don't ride the same. Hope that those on their first visit take to it quickly and that William Lawson starts to turn round his season with a decent score. The Monarchs' fans (on here at least) seem to be very pessimistic and expect a hammering but I'm hopeful we might get close to picking up a point.

Good gutsy performance from all 6 Monarchs to keep the score respectable against a really strong Tigers side. The track was not ideal due to the weather forecast, but the track staff worked hard to keep the dust down as best they could and there was still some pretty good races. After a first race last, Paul Starke rode very well for Glasgow and Joel Andersson was the stand out for Edinburgh taking 7 rides including a brave outside burst to win heat 7.

I think Edinburgh might just nick this today I will be going to support my team and as long as all those wearing blue and gold give 100% I will be happy, whatever the score. Hopefully see some good racing and the rain stays away.

Okay, thanks. Any idea why some riders have visas that don't allow doubling-up while others do?

The quote on the website from John Campbell states: "The problem is all to do with what tracks Sam is allowed to ride on in the UK." This suggests that Sam is not allowed to ride at Armadale, but he's already ridden there this season on April 12th for Wolves.

Last minute decision to go last night and after two heats thought it might be a good choice. Next 6 heats were thoroughly depressing. Score flattered Edinburgh as any luck came our way. Don't like to criticise riders but Sedgy was very, very poor for a rider of his experience. The rest were trying hard but usually not making good enough starts. Was very impressed with Leon Flint with good passes on Josh and William and, as ever, enjoyed watching Matty Wethers.

I thought Josh was very good all night and, along with Erik and Broc, provided some good opposition and entertaining racing - heats 4 & 12 were very good. Ricky scored okay but looked out of sorts and the others had nights to forget. But the main reason for the heavy defeat was that Glasgow were very good tonight. Cookie was sublime (I too have missed watching him ride like that) and I think he's bringing the best out of the rest of the team, particularly Chris Harris. I think Cookie may inspire Glasgow to get the away points required to pip us to the play-offs - and perhaps even to the league title!