Workington Comets start to the season has been postponed due to the weather.
They were due to meet Edinburgh Monarchs tonight in round one of the MAXiCAB Knockout Cup at the Armadale stadium.
However, rain has forced its postponement.
The Comets are due to welcome the Monarchs to the GT Tyres Arena in Workington for the second leg tomorrow, Saturday April 19. The meeting starts at the earlier time of 1pm due to other sporting events in the town.
The Comets’ seven-strong team for this year has a fresh and youthful look to it with four new riders having joined during the off-season.
All have spoken in glowing and positive terms about their prospects for the coming months.
The new boys include three Australians. Exciting prospect Fraser Bowes, 23, is embarking on his debut season in British speedway having previously gained European experience in Poland and Sweden.
Jye Etheridge, 29, has made a cross-country move from Berwick Bandits, where he has spent the last seven seasons.
And 22-year-old Jacob Hook is another new Antipodean face — a product of the North Brisbane Junior Motorcycle Club and a former Monarch who faces his former club this weekend.
Tenacious Teenager Vinnie Foord, from East Sussex, is the fourth new signing the youngest Comet at 18 and the team’s only Brit.
He has made the switch from fellow Championship side Poole Pirates, where he was a treble winner last year.
The quartet join vastly experienced Comets skipper and ex-GP rider Troy Batchelor, another fellow Aussie, Tate Zischke, 19, who is back on the bike after an horrific season-ending crash during 2024, and cool customer Antti Vuolas, the fourth Finnish rider to wear Workington colours.
Edinburgh, too, have rung the rider changes in the closed season and amassed an eclectic line-up with Swedish prospect Jonatan Grahn, 24, making his British Speedway bow this year alongside fellow countryman Victor Palovaara, 31, a popular Monarch, who previously rode for the club in two part-season spells during 2018 and 2019.
Italian Paco Castagna, 31, is back to captain the Monarchs in 2025. Justin Sedgmen, 33, returns for his fifth season at Armadale, as does fellow Aussie Kye Thomson, 26. The Edinburgh line-up is completed by reserves Max James, a promising 17-year-old who is returning for a second season at Armadale; and Polish star Oskar Polis, 28, who is also making his British Speedway debut this year having competed in league racing in his home country for the past decade.
The Monarchs have already tasted competitive action on the track this month. They have given two encouraging accounts of themselves, on successive weekends, against near neighbours Glasgow Tigers in a fiercely fought two-legged Scottish Cup clash watched by large crowds. They won last weekend’s second leg on Tigers shale at Ashfield, 46-44, but agonisingly fell two points short on aggregate.
Sedgmen and Thomson already have laps of our Northside track under their belt this year, racing for the Monarchs in the recent Championship Pairs when Thomson scored all 12 of his side’s points on the day.
They were well backed off the track that day by a large number of fans who made the trip from Edinburgh, and another sizeable contingent is expected in West Cumbria this Saturday.
Prior to tonight’s postponement, Comets team boss James Denham said: “This is a really tough opening tie, but we’re ready. I think the team we have signed for this year is once again a mixed bag of experience and youth.”
“We couldn’t have a better skipper leading us in Troy, last year really stepped up when we needed him the most and we are all confident he can once again do that. But also we have the experience of Jye in there as well, he started his UK career with Edinburgh and it’s a track he enjoys.
“At reserve we have two of the strongest reserves in the league as a pairing. Once again Jacob has ridden for Edinburgh in the past and I think he and Vinnie could be our trump card tomorrow, but they are against good opposition with Victor Palovaara at number 6.”
“It will be Fraser’s first competitive meeting in the UK, it’s going to take him a few meeting to settle in as it did with Antti and Tate last year but for Friday he will be at 2, meaning he will be in heat one which will be tough to start but we know he is capable of beating the opposition.”
“Our aim is always to win, but keeping the scoreline close for the 2nd leg on Saturday at Northside is very important if we want to progress.”
