EDINBURGH Scotwaste Monarchs bosses are hoping the capital speedway club's first Premier Trophy final appearance for nine years will spark an attendance boom at Armadale similar to the one they experienced when they won the championship crown in 2003.
Monarchs will face Birmingham Brummies for the first major silverware of the season next month.
Monarchs are also through to the Knockout Cup semi finals and are many people's tip to win the league and, with Sky TV also set to screen their home cl
ash with current leaders Somerset Rebels in August, club chairman Alex Harkess is optimistic attendances will rise in the coming weeks.
"That's what it's all about," he said.
"Because the team are scoring so many points right now, we are paying out higher wages than we did last season. It would be nice to increase our crowds to compensate for that and we hope this will happen.
"A lot of people backed us when we won the league and, hopefully, they will turn out to support us again. We also hope to have a good run with the weather – it can make such a difference to our crowds if it's sunshine and blue skies."
Despite of going down 46-44 in Monday's semi final second leg at Reading Racers, Monarchs eased into the final.
Harkess said: "The great boost, apart from getting to the final, was our home leg against Reading. The 22-point lead we amassed proved to be a very comfortable advantage. We never really felt we would let things slip."
Monarchs won't allow themselves to fall into the trap of thinking Birmingham will be mere cannon fodder, despite the fact they trounced the Midlanders on their own track just last week.
Harkess said: "A lot is happening at Birmingham at the moment because of their current injury situation.
"It's a case of how much their side will change by the time the final takes place.
"It was pretty wet down there for the league fixture and that probably put their own riders off, as it did our own. That probably worked against Birmingham. Conditions might be totally different for the trophy clash.
"We are treating it as just another match. In the history of Scottish sport you don't really want to be labelled favourites, but I suspect we will be. We will take whatever team Birmingham put out."
He went on: "We look at every match and we have always targeted certain fixtures because you believe can win them. This attitude is rapidly changing this season. We feel we are capable of doing anything, anywhere, on our day.
"We have seven riders in the side who can all score."
Harkess says Monarchs strength this season is their knack of overcoming any member having an off night-and still getting the desired result at the end of the night.
He said: "For instance, our reserves Andrew Tully and Aaron Summers had such an evening at Reading on Monday and the pair, to be honest, have carried us in some matches.
"Both were outscored by Reading's reserves – and that was probably a first – but we still pulled through."
Skipper Derek Sneddon scored eight points and Harkess thinks the Falkirk ace seems to have rediscovered confidence.
"Derek was very good at Reading, he won a couple of races and gated very well.
"He drops down to reserve next Friday. With his confidence seemingly back, he should score loads of point from the tail-end.
"I don't think because he is captain he'll bother about dropping down. If you score lots of points you don't care what number you ride at. I mean, Andrew scored 21 at Armadale recently – and he was reserve."
Monarchs' "Flyin'" Ryan Fisher feels he and his teammates have a great chance against Birmingham.
Fisher, who top-scored with 12 at Reading, said: "Although we wanted to win on the night at Reading, they are a good side and we couldn't quite do it. But to go down just 46-44 was still a great result.
"The final with Birmingham should be good. I really enjoyed their track when we won there in the league last week."
The full article contains 701 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
