Teams share points after concerns over track safety
Berwick Bandits: 42 Glasgow Tigers: 42 SGB Championship
BERWICK were fired up last night to tackle the Glasgow Tigers, currently third in the SGB Championship and defeated the Bandits at Shielfield Park back in April by only two points meaning it was all to play for.
The nerves were obvious and both Bandits clattered the tapes in Heat One, but Nick Morris hit them first and subsequently penalised 15 metres in the re-run, which was won brilliantly by Joe Jacobs after a battling first bend with Richard Lawson, but held his own for the win in a home 4-2 result.
Following a shared Heat Two won well by Jye Etheridge, the Aussie was out again in Heat Three as a replacement for David Howe who had gone through the tapes, but found Dan Bewley too fast to catch as Richie Worrall forced his way under Etheridge on the second bend of he third lap for a Glasgow maximum 1-5 putting the Tigers ahead 8-10, but an engine failure for Aaron Summers in Heat Four allowed Kevin Doolan through to lead the way for a Bandits’ 4-2, levelling the match up at 12-12.
Morris well and truly made up for his Heat One by blasting Summers away to take a massive win in Heat Six and with Jacobs in third over Jack Smith in a Berwick 4-2 to put the Bandits back into a two-point lead, but a rocket gate from Bewley and Worrall over Doolan put the Tigers back in front by two, 20-22.
With tensions mounting Summers went down heavily off the second bend and was duly excluded despite some feeling Jacobs had shut the door on him making the call a tough one, which the fans in red and white seemed to disagree with, but in the re-run Jacobs made the gate only to be passed by Perry mid race in a shared 3-3 taking the score to 23-25.
However Berwick wanted success, with Gappmaier flying hard round the outside of Summers off the second lap in a 4-2 while Morris looked set for second in Heat 10.
He powered up from no where to shoot past Worrall at a rate of knots to share the race to keep the match level at 30-all, but another win for the fast starting Bewley over Etheridge who did well to hold out Lawson in a 2-4 that put Glasgow back in front as the rain started to fall.
Worrall and Summers won the next two heats in the rain, the latter in fine style, despite looking far from happy with conditions. With the score now 38-40 while in the re-run of Heat 14, Howe excelled to win well with Etheridge taking third in a 4-2 which again, with one heat remaining tied the match 42-42.
However BOTH teams and management agreed that the track was too icy and potentially dangerous so the meeting was called off with one to go and the result standing as the fairest result of all, a 42-42 draw.