Speedway: Dyer dying to kick-start his stuttering Monarchs career

In speedway if you don’t score points you don’t earn, and before you know it poverty can beckon. Edinburgh Monarchs’ new reserve rider Micky Dyer must have felt close to the breadline two weeks ago when he posted seven zero returns in two meetings against Redcar Bears and Newcastle Diamonds.

But the straight-talking Aussie was a relieved young man after Monarchs’ superb victory over Workington Comets at Armadale on Friday. The 21-year-old picked up a respectable four points, and more importantly, won the heat two reserves’ battle beating Gary Irving and former Monarch Kyle Howarth.

Yet Dyer, who is very much on a learning curve in the Premier League this season, candidly admitted he is riding “rubbish” at the moment. “These matches against Redcar and Newcastle were a disaster, but I was better on Friday. I started off well but didn’t finish the meeting the way I would have liked, but these things can happen.

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“I faded away towards the end of the match but I had a word with a couple of the guys afterwards about my machinery and I’m going to try out a few different things for this week’s fixtures against Glasgow Tigers.

“I don’t know what happened against Redcar and Newcastle, I just couldn’t put things together, I was off the pace, but don’t ask me why it happened, but I need to start winning a bit more and once I get more race wins under my belt. I will get my confidence back, and when that happens I should start riding better, right now I’m riding pretty rubbish.”

Dyer’s immediate priority is to improve his starts, confessing: “Have you seen my gating? It’s rubbish and it’s something I need to work on. I want to win every race not just the heat two reserves’ scrap. I want to do my best for the whole team, and right now I know I need to up my game.”

Dyer is still striving to get to grips with Armadale, and says it doesn’t really suit his style. “We have nothing like it back home in Australia, it’s quite a tricky track, but it will be good once I learn how to ride it. I really need to learn how to ride the place if I want to improve my scoring.

“I did not know what to expect when I arrived here because everything is so very different to what I’m used to. It’s not just the tracks that are different, the lifestyle is totally different as well.

“And being at reserve is not the easiest spot in the team, I’m still trying to find my feet and I also need to know how to set up my bikes for the various surfaces I have encountered, especially at those circuits away from home, I prefer tracks with a bit dirt on them, I don’t like slick circuits.”

Monarchs have made it clear that there is no undue pressure on Dyer and his tail-end partner Charles Wright, who is going through a sticky patch right now.

It wasn’t just Dyer who felt elated after the Workington triumph, a match, incidentally, which produced some of the most stunning speedway witnessed at the Lothian Arena in years. “The whole team were delighted with the result,” said Dyer. “Workington are at the top of the League Cup table and had only been beaten once before.

“A lot of people didn’t expect us to win but we showed them we can pull together as a team.”