EDINBURGH Scotwaste Monarchs may well have clinched the Premier League speedway championship before they return to Glasgow Tigers to contest their derby clash which was controversially postponed on Sunday morning.
Glasgow have offered Monarchs a September 14 re-staging date which has already been rejected as the title-chasing Capital outfit are at Newcastle Diamonds that day.
Glasgow came under heavy fire for calling off the match at 10am on Sunday morning
– a full six hours before the scheduled 4pm start time.
But the Ashfield team have strenuously denied suggestions that they were running scared of Monarchs because they would have been missing their influential reserve rider Josh Grajconek, who was injured in a spill at Scunthorpe 48 hours earlier.
With the row showing no signs of abating, it's clear relations between both camps have been soured.
Monarchs chairman Alex Harkess today made it crystal clear it's up to Glasgow to come up with an alternative date.
"It's not caused a fixture pile-up for us – but it has for them. There is no way we'll be returning to Ashfield before September 14 because Glasgow already have fixtures pencilled in up to that point. We certainly don't want to go there needing to win to clinch the league, we'd like it out of the way before then. It's up to them to get back to us. It's not our problem."
Glasgow allege their circuit was like porridge on the morning of the meeting and, believing more rain was due in the afternoon, took the decision to call the fixture off. But Harkess said: "It did seem strange on what turned out to be a lovely day in Glasgow. There was no need to call it off as early as they did given the relatively short distance our team and supporters had to travel.
"They could have waited until 1pm – even then we wouldn't have set off on our journey. They could have waited to see what conditions were like if they had wanted to run the meeting."
The suspicion that the Tigers knew they would lose the meeting simply won't go away and Harkess added: "I don't have proof one way or the other. I didn't see the Ashfield track so I have no idea how good or bad it was. I just know it was a lovely day in Glasgow on Sunday. We put in a lot of effort in getting matches on at Armadale. If we'd called our meetings off in the morning, I'm not sure how many fixtures we'd have left to fulfil. But we had no choice in the matter, it wasn't in our hands".
Meanwhile hopes that William Lawson, who broke his collar bone against the Isle of Wight, would return to action for Monarchs against Berwick Bandits tomorrow night, have been dashed.
"Whilst William had a go on a quad bike, he is still in a bit of pain and isn't ready to come back yet," said Harkess, "It's a bit of a concern as we thought he'd be back riding by now".
Even if the 21-year-old declares himself fit within the next few days, Monarchs won't risk him for their away trip to leaders Somerset Rebels on Wednesday. Nor is it likely Lawson will line up for the return joust at Armadale two days later.
It seems probable Monarchs will try to book Reading's Mark Lemon once more as a guest against the Bandits."
The full article contains 581 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
