Season Opener at Last
(Posted 23/03/07)

After a long winter, Tigers finally start their 2007 season as they take to the track at Armadale for the first leg of the Spring Trophy.

The corresponding fixture last season was curtailed to only 12 heats due to the weather and saw the Tigers go down by 6 points but they will be hoping to do better this season.

With neither club having turned a wheel in anger yet, it is hard to judge the outcome and a lot may depend on how Edinburgh's new veteran Ronnie Correy will take to the track. He competed well in the Alan Hunt memorial at Birmingham on Wednesday night so will feel confident. However, in his only track outing this season, albeit at Newcastle, George Stancl has shown that Correy will not find it easy especially if George gets the start on him in the opening heat. A lot of pressure will be on Monarchs Will Lawson as second heat leader who did have a few good races against Shane Parker last season but most will expect Shane to come out on top.

Moller, Tessari and Wethers in the middle order have the advantage of knowing the track well and Edinburgh will be looking to capitalise on this against a Tigers middle order who, Ksiezak excepted, don't have Armadale as one of their better tracks.

At reserve, Edinburgh have a very strong home reserve in the form of Sneddon and although David McAllan knows Armadale well, Lee Dicken has certainly not been comfortable on the track. However Tigers will be hoping he can pick up a few points when coming up against Andrew Tully, the Monarchs final reserve.

Even with it being a new season there are not a lot of new faces in either line up and both clubs know each other well and it promises to be an entertaining start to 2007.