Redcar are too much for Bandits to Bear

THE rain covers saved last night’s SGB Championship clash between Berwick Bandits and Redcar Bears after an horrendous thunder storm over Shielfield.

The curfew did stop the match after heat 14 – but the result stood with the Bears winning 50-34.

Both the opening heats started off 4-2s to Redcar with Jason Garrity sharp from gate to win the first.

Berwick’s Lee Payne fell and was excluded from a heat two re-run which also brought down Danny Ayres, but in the three-man re-run Ellis Perks made no error as guest Jack Parkinson-Blackburn took a good second place with the score 4-8.

David Howe and Lewis Bridger made two excellent gates in heat three against Charles Wright and Jonas B. Andersen in an easy 5-1 to level the match 9-all.

But with Perks again well out in front of heat four Ben Barker battled well to keep Kevin Doolan in third until the Bandits’ skipper fell in a visitors 5-1.

Heat five was a shared 3-3 but Berwick took a 4-2 in the sixth. Dany Gappmaier – unstoppable seven days earlier – took only one point last night and in heat eight looked woefully slow to end up a poor last as Garcia and Perks hit home another 1-5 taking the score to 21-27.

But heat nine ended in drama; Howe went wide off the second bend of the third lap, catching the fence which flung him like a rag doll off the back as Ayres hit the debris and fell heavily.

Amazingly all the riders eased themselves back to their feet, to everyone’s collective relief. The heat was awarded a 3-3.

Howe and Ayres were both withdrawn from the meeting, and with Payne also withdrawn due to a reoccurrence of a shoulder injury, the Bears went about the business of taking the points they needed to take all four league points as the Bandits’ bad luck returned with vengeance.

To top it off the curfew ran out and heat 15 had to be scrapped too with the result standing.