I have a good feeling about move - Kyle
KYLE Bickley hopes it will be third time lucky when he turns the clockback and dons a Redcar race-jacket for the first time in anger tonight against Berwick at the Ecco Arena (tapes up 7.30).
The Agilia Bears’ midweek signing is not new to the red, black and grey body colour as he spent many years in his early teens as the Teessiders’ mascot, lapping before meetings on an array of smaller-engined machines.
Bickley was a schoolboy star who twice won the FIM Under-16 World Championship but slipped away when he signed for his local club Workington Comets prior to joining the senior ranks.
Since then the now 20-year-old Cumbrian has ridden for the Comets, Belle Vue Colts, Glasgow and most recently Berwick but never for Redcar, as so many fans watching his formative years thought might happen.
He started this year at Sheifield
Park in the Borders, racing for both Berwick’s Championship and National Development League (junior) sides but midway through last month the Bandits decided to sacrifice him and former Bears’ number one Ty Proctor in order to sign fast -rising Dane Jonas Knudsen and Oxford’s Nathan Stoneman in an effort to get away from the foot of the league.
Almost immediately Bickley was snapped up by bottom-of-the-table Newcastle who, just days later, collapsed amid financial turmoil, so Redcar technically becomes his third club in as many weeks although he never actually rode for the now-defunct Tynesiders.
Struggling Adam Roynon has been released by the Bears to make way for Bickley who, purely by coincidence, makes his Redcar debut against his former Bandits’ teammates and will face both his replacements Knudsen and Stoneman in heat two.
He said: “It’s going to be interesting and is a meeting I’m really looking forward to.
“I’m not nervous or apprehensive - I’m going out to enjoy it, score some points and maybe even prove a point.
“I have a good feeling about this move.
“It never seemed to be the right time to come to Redcar.
“However, they are in need of a rider and I was in need of a club.”
The Bears go into tonight’s encounter having slipped outside the play-off places but with the knowledge victory will hoist them back into the top six.
Manager Jade Mudgway insists the Bears will still make the end-ofseason shoot-out if they win the remainder of their home matches, which conclude with the visits of inform Glasgow and play-off rivals Scunthorpe.
Bickley will carry on riding at Berwick for their National Development League side the Bullets, while continuing to commute to Torun in Poland where he has, like new teammates Jordan Jenkins and Jason Edwards, been taking part in the country’s recently-launched Under24 League.
AGILIA BEARS: Charles Wright (captain), Jason Edwards, Erik Riss, Kasper Andersen, Lewis Kerr, Kyle Bickley, Jordan Jenkins.
BERWICK BANDITS: Chris Harris (captain), Theo Pijper, Jye Etheridge, Ricky Wells, Leon Flint, Jonas Knudsen, Nathan Stoneman.