Parr: Tonight will be tough!
Redcar team manager Gavin Parr believes tonight’s Cab Direct Championship clash will be a closely fought battle despite Edinburgh’s tough start to the season on home soil. The “Agilia” Bears travel north on the lookout for their first Cab Direct Championship points of the season with tapes up at 7:30 at Armadale Stadium.
The exuberant team boss believes the Monarch’s settled side will be a threat, “ Edinburgh are a settled side with the likes of Kye Thomson spending multiple seasons with the club. Kyle Bickley has also done a lot of laps around Armadale whilst Craig Cook obviously knows Armadale really well. I know Edinburgh have only won 1/3 at home this season but they are a strong side.”
Parr strongly believes that things are starting to click in the middle order for Redcar, “ I really think things are starting to click for Connor (Bailey) and Danyon (Hume). Connor really came on in the second half of the meeting against Birmingham whilst Danyon had a really good night at Berwick.”
Parr also discussed the desire for Hume to remain sensible when in a good race position, “ I think Danyon is trying to impress too much in the early stages of the season! Danyon was in a good 2nd in heat 8 against Birmingham but then went looking for drive and ended up out of contention so it’s just about understanding when it’s the right time to sit for 2 points or go for the win.”
The former Redcar Cubs boss also quashed any thoughts of Edinburgh being any weaker by bringing in Birmingham’s Justin Sedgmen to guest in place of shoulder injury victim Josh Pickering, “ Look, we all know Josh Pickering flies around Edinburgh and is great to watch but Justin showed us all what he’s capable of last week against us (Sedgmen scored 14 at Redcar for Birmingham) so I don’t see them being weaker by bringing in Sedg.”
As reported yesterday, Redcar have drafted in 2022 Bear Lewis Kerr to guest in place of his good friend Erik Riss with Parr commenting on both, “ Lewi is really happy to come in and do a job for us and with him knowing the club and some of the lads, I think he’ll fit right in. Erik is also getting closer to a comeback but he has had some side effects from his lumbar puncture procedure but our German is getting better so we are hoping to have him back for Poole on Wednesday.”
Edinburgh bring in the aforementioned Sedgmen at number 1 for Josh Pickering whilst Craig Cook captains the side in the absence of the exciting Aussie. Kyle Bickley will be hoping to carry on improving after hitting paid 15 across his last two meetings for the Monarchs.
Meanwhile, Redcar are looking to keep improving after an encouraging start to the season with Danny King looking to continue his red hot form after the Brit hit a superb 17 points for Ipswich last night against Peterborough.
Edinburgh Monarchs
- Justin Sedgmen (G) 8.92
- Lasse Fredriksen 4.00
- Kye Thomson 6.60
- Paco Castagna 4.93
- Craig Cook © 8.24
- Kyle Bickley 2.86
- Jacob Hook 4.00
Redcar “Agilia” Bears
- Lewis Kerr (G) 8.24
- Danyon Hume 5.68
- Charles Wright 7.40
- Connor Bailey 4.32
- Danny King 8.05
- Jason Edwards 3.80
- Jake Mulford 2.00