Coatbridge Monarchs
| Edinburgh Monarchs | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Club information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Track address |
Armadale Stadium Bathgate Road Armadale West Lothian |
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| Country |
 Scotland
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| Founded | 1928 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Team manager | Alan Bridgett | ||||||||||||||||||
| League | SGB Championship | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www.edinburghmonarchs.co.uk | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Colours | Blue and Gold | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track size | 260 metres (280 yd) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record time | 54.8 seconds | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record date | 30 May 2014 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record holder | Craig Cook | ||||||||||||||||||
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The Edinburgh Monarchs are a Scottish Speedway team, currently based in Armadale. They compete in the SGB Championship, racing on Friday nights during the Speedway season. The club is run by a Board of Directors, chaired by Alex Harkess.
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 midway 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.
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