Berwick Bandits v Edinburgh Monarchs

There?s a bit of pressure when you are expected to win a match, but Monarchs handled it well to take a 48-42 win at Shielfield.

Bandits? recent signing Manu Hauzinger was said to have broken his collar bone in practise, but this has presumably not been accepted as Bandits were not allowed the r/r facility which Glasgow have for Ross Brady in similar circumstances.

They brought in Conference rider Greg Blair, who in the event gave an interesting performance.

Indeed for the first ten heats it was a very close match with Bandits holding their own, led by the dominant Rymel and Makovsky.

Bandits had the first three heat winners, and another stoppage by Thomas H Jonasson gave Bandits a 2-point lead as well as signalling that the Swede hadn?t sorted his mechanical worries.

Young Blair caused a bit of a stir by leading all the way to the last bend in heat 4, before Andrew Tully just pipped him over the line. An engine failure for Wethers kept Bandits ahead.

Again no-one could beat Makovsky and Rymel in heats 5 and 6, but we did get a gift when the Italina Franchetti stopped in third place in heat 6.

Finally we levelled the scores in heat 7 through a Lawson/Jonasson 4-2, split by the handy Magosi.

Derek won heat 8 but Andrew, after two good rides, couldn?t get out of fourth spot in spite of trying very hard.

Matthew came out on a Sneddon machine in heat 9, and promptly sped away from Makovsky in the equal fastest time so far.

Thomas led heat 10 but came under pressure from Rymel, who burst through just as the Swede?s machine was slowing once again.

So it was 30-30 at that point, and we still had a lot to do.

Step forward Sneddon and Fisher again. Ryan was content to sit behind Derek, keeping Magosi at bay. He didn?t have to do it for the full four laps because Greg Blair fell on the pits bend and the heat was awarded.

We then had 2-minute exclusions in the next three heats, the first two intentional to give Magosi some extra time coming in to the heat. However it didn?t pay off.

In heat 12 Tully passed the Hungarian to team up with Jonasson behind Makovsky, and in heat 13 Magosi was again at the back as Wethers took an excellent win with Fisher third.

Matthew rode a thrilling second bend here to squeeze past the home no. 1.

So we were now 6 up and needed just to share heat 14, to avoid giving the top two Bandits a chance to salvage something in heat 15. This time Magosi (who must have been tiring) failed to beat the 2 minutes, Lawson won the heat and Tully took third.

So the last heat was irrelevant but Wethers again rode well to split the Czechs.

In the end our win was well deserved. Berwick will be a decent side if they can plug the no. 5 position, though Hauzinger may not prove to be the answer.

Berwick Bandits v Edinburgh Monarchs

Success at Berwick has been a rare occurrence for us over the years but we won there last September in our Premier League match. Can we do it again on Saturday?

We didn?t just win at Shielfield Park last time there- we hammered the Bandits by 20 points! However that is no guide to this Premier Trophy match because there is not a single rider in this season?s new Berwick side who rode that evening. In fact only three of this year?s Monarchs team took part too.

Berwick started last week with a challenge match against Newcastle and, although they lost by 43-46, they stunned the Diamonds the following night with a 44-46 victory at Brough Park! In fairness though, since the Bandits only had six signed riders, they were allowed to use Stanislaw Burza who duly obliged with a total of 21+1 from 10 rides over the two meetings - nearly a quarter of the Bandits? total haul!

Berwick start with a big advantage having already ridden two matches. Back in the side this year are Adrian Rymel and Michal Makovsky, both formidable performers round the big Berwick track. The rest of the team are all newcomers though. Manuel Hauzinger was signed this week to complete the septet. He joins Guglielmo Franchetti, Tero Aarnio, Norbert Magosi and Adam McKinna. Who you may ask? Well we have seen Aarnio who rode for the Finnish side which visited Armadale late last season and of course Adam McKinna used to ride for the Dale Devils. Franchetti, the Italian in the side, struggled last week on the wet Berwick surface as did Aarnio and Magosi but the latter made the fans sit up and notice with three race wins at Newcastle in a 10 point haul. Since he is one of the Berwick reserves, he may prove a trump card for the Bandits if he can ride to that level at home. In fact he may be the key to Berwick?s success (or lack of it) this season.

Manuel Hauzinger rode for Birmingham last year and rattled up 7 points for the Brummies when they won at Berwick last August so he will no doubt take on the third heat leader role. All in all the Berwick squad may be a more powerful team than many of the critics have given them credit for. However it?s likely that the newcomers will take some time to adjust to their new home so we arrive at perhaps a good time in search of points.

There have been too many terrible Monarchs? performances at Berwick to predict anything other than a defeat but there is a level of optimism about this year?s squad which tempts me to think positively (?and, no, I?m not positive we?ll lose this match!). Although the riders will be a bit rusty due to not having ridden much and no doubt due to all the rain too, the Shielfield track is one on which both Derek and Matthew have excelled in the past (Derek scored 10+1 (6) last March while Matthew scored 12+1 (5) last September. William also returned a 12 point score from 5 rides down there last March in the corresponding fixture last year while Andrew scored 9+1 (5) guesting for the Bandits in the Premier League match against Sheffield there last April.

The big question mark of course is how will Ryan, Thomas and Aaron adapt to the circuit. Aaron has ridden there before in a second half outing and I?ve a feeling Ryan has been there too on one occasion. Of the trio you would expect Thomas perhaps to be the most comfortable given his experience on the big Polish tracks. Considering these facts and statistics we should at least be able to run the home side close and possibly even pick up the three points but I?m not tempting fate by predicting an outright win.

The northern Premier Trophy section consists of ourselves, Berwick, Glasgow and Workington. With only one team qualifying from the section, an away win (now worth three points) would give us a massive boost in our efforts to top the group particularly since there are no bonus points for an aggregate win this season. No doubt Glasgow and Workington will be looking to their visits to Berwick as potential points gathering matches too but wouldn?t it be just like the thing (this being speedway) if Berwick were to shock us all by winning the group instead?!

Likely teams:

Berwick - Adrian Rymel, Guglielmo Franchetti, Tero Aarnio, Manual Hauzinger, Michal Makovsky, Norbert Magosi, Adam McKinna

Edinburgh - Ryan Fisher, Derek Sneddon, Thomas Jonasson, William Lawson, Matthew Wethers, Andrew Tully, Aaron Summers.