On the back of my ‘North East Experience’ where I took in meetings up at Redcar and Berwick in July. The end of July saw me heading back up north once again, but this time it saw me taking the trip over the border to Edinburgh for the “Battle of the M8” with the stretch of Motorway separating the two teams in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
My previous visit to watch Speedway in Scotland came back in 2009 – when the Belle Vue Aces faced the Premier League Glasgow Tigers in an Inter-League challenge match up at Ashfield Stadium and saw them edging out the hosts 48-47 in a last heat decider in the rain. That particular season saw the year bookending with the Aces, as they faced more Scottish opposition in the Edinburgh Monarch at the old Belle Vue Stadium, in what was the ill-conceived Promotion/Relegation Playoffs.
I’ve watched the Tigers since riding at Sheffield, but this was my first ever ‘Battle of Scotland’ between the Tigers and Monarchs, and one meeting I was massively looking forward to for a while. I won’t lie, my excitement did take a minor blow with the news that Glasgow would be without Tom Brennan due to him riding in the u21 version of the Speedway of Nations meeting in Vojens, Denmark; of course, it would have been great to watch an Aces rider in the meeting.
That said, it was a new track that I could tick off on my list of speedway tracks I hadn’t visited before. After a long day of travelling up from Manchester by train, and then walking around the beautiful Scottish capital sightseeing; it saw me walking up Princes Street in the early evening to find the supporters coach that is put on to take fans to the meetings. After nearly 45 minutes on the coach we arrived at Armadale Stadium, home to Edinburgh Monarchs since 1997 and was met with a packed out car park that still saw cars trying to come in.
After paying the £10 to use the coach there and back, it saw me heading into the stadium and feeling at first very worried at being the only Englishman in the stadium surrounded by Scots. I did a mini walk of the stadium as I was choosing where the best place to watch from would be, I moved from the first bend to the third bend, where there was a mix of both sets of fans. I thought to myself “I’ve come for a derby, may as well be mixed in amongst them”.
The past two meetings on my travels (Redcar v Berwick/Berwick v Poole) were pretty poor matches, even though the Bandits v Pirates match ended with a last heat decider to have Poole securing a 45-45 draw. But the two matches lacked any real excitement both on and off the track. This match however started on a down note, but soon recovered to become a great and entertaining fun meeting as a neutral.
Rider Parades for clubs are something that interests me a lot of late. Edinburgh’s method of introducing the riders is how it should be, with the visitors coming out first and then the home side out second to get that extra cheer. However, their way of introducing riders to the fans was interesting – with the riders coming out one by one and taking the cheers or boos of the respective fanbase.
Heat 1 saw a horrifying crash that involved all four riders colliding on the first and second bends, which resulted in three of the four riders being forced to withdraw from the meeting through injury. Sam Masters (shoulder), Lasse Frederiksen (Dislocated Thumb) for the Monarchs; while Glasgow’s Craig Cook (Hip) all were forced to pull out. After a near hour delay with the medical staff attending to those injured riders, it saw Masters being driven to the local hospital and soon saw the racing ready to restart.
When the action got back underway, it saw Edinburgh and Glasgow both down to five each and in truth, it made for a fully entertaining meeting with both smaller teams. Edinburgh took an early 8-4 lead with a couple of 4-2s, with Heat 3 seeing Paco Castagna getting past Danyon Hume who was trying his best to keep the Monarchs riders behind him. Ulrich Ostergaard and Connor Bailey picked up Glasgow’s first race advantage with a 4-2, as Ostergaard saw him getting the better of Josh Pickering as those two would race against each other five times overall in the match.
There were times where two or three riders would be in the same races back to back due to the injuries, as Heat 5 saw both Broc Nicol of the Tigers and Paco Castagna for the hosts, with Nicol taking victory. Then the following race saw both Nicol and Castagna together again, with the duo wheel to wheel with the Italian getting the better of the American, as both were shared heats.
Glasgow’s Danyon Hume and Aaron Summers got out on a 5-1 in Heat 7 – but Josh Pickering managed to limit the damage and see the big Tigers’ support on the hill celebrating their riders levelling the scores at 21-21. Edinburgh’s James Sarjeant took a surprise race win in Heat 8, while his teammate in Jacob Hook slotted into third for a 4-2 as the two Tigers riders challenged the home riders for two races in one to lead 25-23.
Ulrich Ostergaard made a tough move on Kye Thomson down the back straight to lead in Heat 9, as both Thomson and Castagna gave chase to the Danish rider who picked up his second race win. That started a string of shared heats for the next three races up right up until Heat 14, with the meeting still hanging in the balance. However, the Monarchs pair of Paco Castagna and James Sarjeant both made the gate and took home a huge 5-1 to win the match and have the home fans erupting.
In keeping with this being a Scottish derby, it saw Castagna pumping the air as he passed the rival fans and celebrated towards his own fans as the Monarchs beat the Tigers with a race to go. The night was rounded off with a bit of controversy, as a superb race involving Castagna, Pickering and Ostergaard – saw Ulrich making a desperate move that took the front wheel of Paco on the fourth bend of lap 3 to send the home rider hitting the deck.
Pickering was none too happy with Ully, and saw him speeding up to remonstrate with him down the back straight before Ostergaard went over to check on his fallen rival and have Paco not happy either with the move. Castagna’s charisma could easily see him as a pro wrestler, as when he stood up and slowly turned towards the booing Tigers fans, he dusted off his race suit with the massive Monarchs logo on the front and pointed to it as he walked back.
This saw the home riders come join him and see one or two celebrate in the direction of the away fans as the victorious Edinburgh side moved towards the home straight to celebrate with their home fans. Lost in the chaos was the Monarchs being awarded a 5-1 to win 50-40 and for a neutral like me, this was the best meeting I’ve seen live where I didn’t have a dog in the fight, and the whole ‘fun & games’ after heat 15 set it up for an interesting return fixture over in Glasgow two days later. (Ed note: Glasgow won 53-37)
A Track With A VUE 