Comets pegged back but they give Bandits a shock

John Walsh reports

Last updated 13:47, Monday, 25 August 2008

WORKINGTON Comets gave the Bandits a scare at Shielfield on Saturday as they looked capable of ending Berwick’s unbeaten home record.

Round the bend: Comets’ Kauko Nieminen leading the Berwick pair of Michal Makovsky and Paul Clews during Saturday’s meet

Berwick Bandits 48, Workington Comets 41

From heat four until heat nine the Comets were in front before Berwick started to find their best form out of the gate and pulled away to win with a late surge.

Comets team manager Ian Thomas said: “Apart from when they drew with Edinburgh, the Bandits have been putting big scores on everybody.

“I think we shocked them for a while and I thought we might just sneak it.

“Ryan Fisher put a lot into it for his eight points and a bonus but I think if we had Tomas Topinka or Daniel Nermark at number one we might just have had enough there to win it.

“But the main man on the night was Berwick’s number one was Adrian Rymel. He looked a class apart and was outstanding in the way he raced to his maximum.”

Workington will be confident of gaining revenge tonight when they go into action at Derwent Park for the return.

Gary Havelock will take over as guest at number one for Daniel Nermark while Berwick will continue to operate rider replacement for the absent Norbert Magosi.

At Shielfield Workington provided five heat winners, but critically only one of them came in the last half of the meeting.

For while Workington appeared to all their best work in the opening eight heats it was Berwick who finished the stronger.

Successive heat advantages for the Bandits of 5-1, 5-1 and 4-2 hoisted Berwick from a five point deficit to a five point lead and Workington just weren’t capable of hitting back again.

Four different Workington riders won races but only Kauko Nieminen took the chequered flag in the second half of the meeting.

The only real controversy came in heat six after former Workington rider Scott Smith fell after colliding with the back straight fence. He was excluded, but so too was Charles Wright after he fell on the third corner.

The re-run involved only Rymel and Carl Stonehewer so the heat points were 3-2 in Berwick’s favour.

Rymel rode immaculately as he appears to be enjoying his best-ever season in British speedway and he actually set the fastest time of the night in the final race, which was over a second quicker than when he had won the opener.

A good contingent of travelling Workington fans actually thought they were going to witness a sixth away success of the season before the Bandits staged their own hold-up.

MATCH FACTS

Berwick Bandits 48: Adrian Rymel 15, rider replacement for Norbert Magosi, Michal Makovsky 13, Paul Clews 8, Paul Cooper 0, Guglielmo Franchetti 6, Scott Smith 6.

Workington Comets 41: Ryan Fisher 8, Tomi Reima 3, Kauko Nieminen 11, Joe Haines 6, Carl Stonehewer 7, Charles Wright 5, John Branney 1.

HEAT BY HEAT

Heat 1: Rymel, Reima, Fisher, Cooper (f) 3-3 (67.7)

Heat 2: Smith, Wright, Franchetti, Branney 7-5 (68.1)

Heat 3: Nieminen, Makovsky, Haines, Clews (f ex) 9-9 (66.8)

Heat 4: Stonehewer, Smith, Branney, Cooper (f) 11-13 (67.5)

Heat 5: Fisher, Makovsky, Clews, Reima 14-16 (66.8)

Heat 6: Rymel, Stonehewer, Smith (f, ex), Wright (f, ex) 17-18 (67.4)

Heat 7: Haines, Nieminen, Franchetti, Cooper 18-23 (67.9)

Heat 8: Makovsky, Wright, Reima, Franchetti 21-26, (66.6)

Heat 9: Makovsky, Clews, Stonehewer, Wright 26-27 (67.4)

Heat 10: Rymel, Clews, Nieminen, Haines 31-28, (67.7)