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KEY POINTS |
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Rye House will be looking to put a troubled spell behind them and gain revenge for one of their only home defeats since the age of the dinosaurs. |
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Edinburgh will be hoping for big performances from the mercurial Andrew Tully and the often brilliant Matthew Wethers to compensate for Wolbert's absence. |
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Rye House Rockets v Edinburgh Monarchs |
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Saturday 3rd July 2010
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Premier League |
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Monarchs are on the road looking for Premier League points, returning to Hoddeston in deepest Hertfordshire tonight (7.00), where only four weeks ago they stunned Len Silver's high flying Rye House Rockets with one of their best ever away performances in a 20-point KO Cup win.
It could have been even more had Andrew Tully not been robbed of a heat win when he was disqualified after his race for not having a dirt deflector fitted. If only speedway applied all its rules with equal vigour! On a slightly greasy surface that night, only one home rider won any heats.
That was the young Swedish 'blonde bombshell, Linus Sundstrom who is expected to be fit after an injury scare when all four riders went into the fence during a recent Swedish League match. Linus moves up to No.1 for this match and poses the biggest threat to the high-flying Monarchs.
His Swedish team-mate, Stefan Ekberg, has also recovering from an injury to his lower back in a crash at Birmingham but should be fit and raring to go. Not so lucky was Luke Bowen who broke his forearm near the elbow in a separate crash in the same match at Perry Barr and is out for two months.
Into his place comes the 37-year-old German rider, Robbie Kessler, formerly of Stoke, Sheffield and Redcar. And that place is at reserve because that's where Bowen was headed at the start of this month, with recent Edinburgh guest Kyle Hughes moving up into the No.2 spot.
It has also been proving a troubling time for Chris Neath at No.3 who has been going over everything on his bikes to try to get to the root of a disappointing run of form. Still on the up and with one foot in the Elite League is Poole-born Jordan Frampton who drops into the No.5 race jacket position.
The second part of the new Rockets' reserve pairing is Lee Strudwick who has been drafted in from their National League Cobras side to replace the out-of form Kurt Shields, who provided some of the entertainment for Newport at Armadale last night when his bike took on a life of its own.
Sadly, one of Edinburgh's best performers of a month ago, Kevin Wolbert, is missing on more continental business, so they go into the match as a six-man team operating rider replacement – never an ideal situation. But the other heroes of that victory, flyin' Ryan Fisher and super Kalle Katajisto will worry the opposition.
Edinburgh will be hoping for big performances from the mercurial Andrew Tully and the often brilliant Matthew Wethers to compensate for Wolbert's absence. New German recruit, Tobias Busch showed a flash of his true capability last night and should be well capable of getting among the points.
The match-up between young Scot, Cal McDade and Lee Strudwick should be an interesting one with both riders stepping up from National League racing. McDade looked a bit more confident in picking up a paid four points against Newport and should enjoy the slicker Hoddeston track.
So Rye House will be looking to put a troubled spell behind them and gain revenge for one of their only home defeats since the age of the dinosaurs. And with track conditions likely to be more to their liking, Monarchs will have to gate like demons if they want to produce anything like a repeat performance.
Probable line-ups
Rye House: Linus Sundstrom, Kyle Hughes, Chris Neath (c), Stefan Ekberg, Jordan Frampton, Lee Strudwick, Robbie Kessler.
Edinburgh: Ryan Fisher, Tobias Busch, rider replacement for Kevin Wolbert, Matthew Wethers (c), Andrew Tully, Cal McDade, Kalle Katajisto.
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