Winning end to season for frustrated Berwick Bandits

Jonas Knudsen and Jye Etheridge of Berwick lead Scunthorpe’s Simon Lambert.

Bandits, without both Chris Harris and Leon Flint, who were riding in the European Pairs, won 57-33.

It signalled the end of a season of under-achievement by the team, and at the same time proved a fatal blow to the Scorpions’ hopes of overtaking Redcar in the race for the end of season play-offs.

Berwick drafted in Poole’s Richard Lawson as a guest for Harris, and he proved to be a very suitable replacement for the Bandits’ number one, storming his way to a superb, if not comfortable looking 15-point maximum.

Berwick produced 13 of the 15 race winners with Jye Etheridge adding a further four to Lawson’s five ride full house.

Jonas Knudsen, back in the team at home for the first time since his visa came through, added a further two, as did Ricky Wells.

The only Scunthorpe race winners were Simon Lambert and reserve Anders Rowe, although James Wright was always in the thick of the action.

Frustratingly, the victory was a taste of what could have been had Bandits not suffered a run of largely narrow home defeats which stretched out from May to August.

Team manager and promoter Gary Flint said: “We hit our straps early and never really looked back.

“It was a dominant performance and, after demolishing Plymouth last time out, at least gives our fans a winning end to what has been a frustrating season.

“We couldn’t have had a better guest than Richard Lawson and it was also good to see Jye and Ricky back in the thick of the action.

“While it is all over for the Bandits there is still plenty of speedway to come at Berwick with the Bullets rounding off their National League fixtures next week and then waiting for Leicester to complete theirs so that the play-offs can be arranged.”

Meanwhile, in the European Pairs, where Harris and Flint were joined by Glasgow’s Tom Brennan as part of a three man Great Britain team in Slangerup, they finished in sixth place.

Bullet Ace Pijper qualified for the SGP3 Final, in Wroclaw, Poland, where he scored five points. The event was for U16 riders racing on 250cc machines.