The Scotwaste Monarchs face one of the biggest weeks in the club’s 60 year history, starting with home matches on Friday (v Mildenhall) and Monday (v Workington, live on Sky TV).

They will race for a while yet without William Lawson, still not recovered from the collar bone broken on 4th July at Armadale. Mark Lemon stands in for Friday’s match. Later next week Monarchs race Birmingham in the final of the Premier Trophy (away Wednesday, home Friday 15th) and after that they have Premier League matches at Workington (16th) and Glasgow (17th)!

Monarchs’ remarkable Swede has an even tougher programme ahead than his team mates – and this follows a major injury scare following his Swedish Elite League match on Tuesday.

After he had collided with Hans Andersen, Thomas’s dad contacted Monarchs’ promoter John Campbell to say that his season could be over with cruciate ligament damage.

Mercifully he was given the all-clear on Wednesday from the hospital, though he is certainly in the wars quite regularly at the moment.

This week he will ride in the Swedish Under-21 Final on Friday and the senior Swedish Final on Saturday, then Gorzow in Poland on Sunday before coming over to join Monarchs for the Monday Sky match.

He rides at Birmingham on Wednesday in the first leg of the Premier Trophy final, then heads home for his appearance as reserve in the Swedish Grand Prix (practise Friday and meeting Saturday). Finally if he is still standing he will be in Monarchs’ ranks at Glasgow on Sunday 17th.

Monarchs will be delighted to welcome the Sky TV cameras and crew to Armadale on Monday evening for the vital match against Workington.

Supporters attending Friday’s match will receive a voucher giving Monday admission for just £5.

Monday’s match against Workington is sponsored by Pro Bowl, whose owner is former Glasgow promoter Brian Sands.

On Friday Monarchs take on the league’s bottom club Mildenhall, though the Fen Tigers do have the Armadale track record holder in their ranks!

That of course is former Monarchs’ captain Theo Pijper. He will be very keen to show that he remembers the quickest way round, and he has as team mates a couple of good quality riders who are making their Armadale debuts. Pole Sebastian Truminski and Dane Jan Graversen have performed well at times in a team which has had a lot of problems this year.

Monday’s match is rather different with Workington right in the midst of the Premier League title battle. They have Tai Woffinden booked in as guest for Daniel Nermark, they have Kauko Nieminen and Carl Stonhewer, and they have whiz kids Joe Haines and Charles Wright.

Good weather please, and the Sky cameras should be in for a treat.

Rory Schlein was the brilliant winner of the Scottish Open at Armadale last Friday, winning all his races comfortably and showing his very high class. Other finishers in the final heat were Travis McGowan, Joe Screen and Andrew Tully.