The visit of the Edinburgh Monarchs to the South Tees Motorsport Park in Premier League action on Thursday evening at 7.30pm will revive memories of an exciting Premier Trophy double for the Redcar Bears over the Scottish team earlier in the season.

The Bears won at the Armadale Stadium by 46 points to 44 on March 30th with a 51-42 victory following at the Motorpark on April 12th.

Within days the Bears lost the services of both skipper Gary Havelock and Mathieu Tresarrieu in a traumatic afternoon at Glasgow Speedway with the team only recently feeling its way near to a full team roster and reasonable fitness.

The Monarchs are spearheaded by American Ronnie Correy and returning Dutchman Theo Pijper. Ronnie has moved into the Premier League at the veteran stage of his career. He made the World Speedway Final on four occasions and won the World Pairs title for the USA with current world number two and former World Champion Greg Hancock. Theo started the season in the Elite League with the Wolverhampton Wolves but has recently returned to the Monarchs camp with William Lawson making a full-time move in the other direction. In support of the internationals are local products of the club's former Conference League operation - Derek Sneddon and Andrew Tully. Both have moved up from reserve berths to the main body of the team and are ensuring the future looks bright for Scottish speedway.

Scotland's number one is James Grieves - no longer a Monarch and these days a very potent Bear. James relishes fixtures against Edinburgh and indeed scored a 15-point-maximum against them at Armadale in March. He retains the number three spot in a Bears line-up reshuffled for the postponed fixture against Workington last Thursday and ready to flex its muscles this. With Josh Auty having completed his GCSE examinations the Bears look forward to his concentrated input with the Yorkshire lad having been invariably an exciting double-figure scorer whenever he has been available in recent months. he is joined by a guest reserve in the shape of Berwick's Benji Compton. They will have to be on top form against Monarchs guest Lee Complin at number seven who took a real liking to the Motorpark circuit for his club Stoke at the Motorpark a fortnight ago.

REDCAR BEARS:
1. Gary Havelock (C)
2. Arlo Bugeja
3. James Grieves
4. Chris Kerr
5. Mathieu Tresarrieu
6. Josh Auty
7. Benji Compton
EDINBURGH MONARCHS:
1. Theo Pijper
2. Derek Sneddon
3. Ronnie Correy (C)
4. Andrew Tully
5. Henrik Moller
6. Jack Roberts
7. Lee Complin