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The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish Speedway team, currently based in Armadale. They compete in the Premier League, racing on Friday nights during the Speedway season. The club is run by a Board of Directors, chaired by Alex Harkess. The team manager is Alan "Doc" Bridgett.〔 〕 ==Brief history== The club was founded in 1928 and operated at Marine Gardens, Portobello in 1929, 1930, 1931, 1938 and 1939. A few team matches were staged in 1929 and an Edinburgh team competed in the Northern League in 1930. The Edinburgh team of 1938 and 1939 was known as The Thistles and they staged a number of challenge matches. After the war, Marine Gardens was not available and the potential of Old Meadowbank, then the home of Leith Athletic F.C., was said to have been spotted by Ian Hoskins. The Monarchs (Meadowbank Monarchs) were re-established in 1948 by a consortium including Frank Varey, ex-rider and Sheffield promoter, and R.L.Rae, a local Edinburgh businessman. The team operated at Old Meadowbank 1948 in the National League Second Division until mid-way through 1954. The team finished at the bottom of the league in 1948 but improved to a best place of third before closure in 1954. Under its promoter Ian Hoskins from 1960 until 1964 the Monarchs raced in the Provincial League and were founder members of the British League that ran from 1965 to 1967. The track was used for practice sessions between 1957 - 1959.〔 〕 Old Meadowbank Stadium had been purchased by the City of Edinburgh Council from Leith Athletic in 1956. Following their successful bid to host the 1970 Commonwealth Games they decided to redevelop the site of the stadium and surrounding area. The Monarchs were evicted as Speedway was not incorporated into the new Meadowbank Stadium plans due to the government of the day refusing to fund stadia which would be used by professional sports. The new stadium sits immediately west of Old Meadowbank essentially on the site of the old running track known as New Meadowbank. The team moved en bloc to a new track at Cliftonhill, Coatbridge (nearer to Glasgow than Edinburgh) and operated as the Coatbridge Monarchs for the 1968 and 1969 seasons before the track licence was sold to Wembley. Speedway returned to Edinburgh in 1977, with the Monarchs racing at Powderhall Stadium from 1977 until 1995. During the 1995 season, the company operating Powderhall ran into financial difficulty, and the stadium was sold to a housing company for redevelopment. This meant the Monarchs were again evicted. In 1996, the Monarchs' rivals Glasgow Tigers closed down, so with a stadium not in use in Glasgow, and the Monarchs without a home in Edinburgh, the Monarchs' moved to Shawfield Stadium, Glasgow to form the Scottish Monarchs. Many Tigers fans refused to support what they saw as a team of old rivals, and although Monarchs fans initially travelled through to Glasgow, crowd numbers soon fell. In 1997, the Monarchs left Glasgow after gaining permission to operate at Armadale Stadium, where they continue to operate to this day.〔 The Monarchs have won the Premier League championship four times in their history, in 2003〔 〕 again in 2008 in 2010 and yet again in 2014. Edinburgh took part in the first Premier League Promotion Play off in 2008 when they faced Wolverhampton. Although they put up a valiant fight, they lost the tie on aggregate. Despite finishing runners up in 2009 they faced Belle Vue in the Premier League Promotion Play off losing both legs. Recent plans of the supermarket chain Sainsburys to redevelop Armadale Stadium fell through after the planning application was rejected. Edinburgh secured another Premier League title in the 2010 season, their third in seven years. The Championship was secured by winning away at Stoke's Loomer Road track, with Edinburgh riders Ryan Fisher and Kevin Wölbert going through the card unbeaten. The Monarchs lost out on another League Championship in 2013 losing narrowly to winners Somerset. The 2014 Monarchs had a very successful season winning the Premier Trophy, the Knock Out Cup and the Premier League. Sam Masters and Max Fricke won the Premier League Pairs Trophy. The 2015 Monarchs won the League section of the Premier League and went on to defeat Glasgow on aggregate in the final. They lost the KO Cup to Somerset. The Monarchs won the league section of the Premier and went on to retain their title with an aggregate victory over Glasgow. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Edinburgh Monarchs」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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