Bandits do double over Comets

Workington Comets 42, Berwick Bandits 51 By John Walsh

Last updated 14:13, Tuesday, 26 August 2008

BERWICK Bandits deservedly completed a quick holiday double over the Comets with an impressive win at Derwent Park.

Workington’s first home defeat of the season was no fluke because the Comets were out-gated and out-battled by a determined Berwick side.

Skipper Adrian Rymel had been the mainstay at Shielfield with a five-ride maximum in the 48-41 victory and this time it was his fellow Czech Republic rider Michal Makovsky who led the way with 16 points from his six rides.

That was from five straight wins – as many as the Workington team could manage throughout the contest – and a third place in the final race of the night.

He received excellent support from Italian reserve Guglielmo Franchetti who had three wins in a seven-ride tally of 14 points.

It was as well that Workington had heat maximums in heats 13 and 15 or they could have been looking at their heaviest home defeat for some considerable time.

The Comets were generally out-gunned from start to finish, and even allowing for a mechanical failure for Kauko Nieminen when he was leading and a puncture for Carl Stonehewer when he was lying second, there could be no excuses.

Heavy rain earlier in the day had pout doubts over the meeting going ahead but it faired a good hour before the meeting was due to start and although the track was heavy, it was Berwick who handled it much better than their hosts.

After two shared heats Berwick grabbed two successive 5-1’s to establish an eight point lead. After eight heats there was ten points in it and after another Berwick 5-1 in heat twelve the advantage had grown to 13.

Workington only had one race winner (Nieminen) in the first eight races and two of their four race advantages came in the final three races of the night when it was virtually all over.

Even when they used a tactical ride Workington only got a 6-3 out of the race as Nieminen won for the six points but Joe Haines was out of it behinds guest Paul Cooper and Italian Guglielmo Franchetti.

Haines was also in heat 14 when guest Gary Havelock was given one last throw of the dice as a tactical substitute. But the teenager fell to put himself out of contention at the end of the first lap and Havelock was never able to get in a serious blow as Franchetti and Paul Clews raced to a 5-1.

The Comets had needed an 8-1 in that penultimate race, and a 5-1 in the last to pip the Bandits but the remote, outside chance of scrambling a win never looked like working out.

The fact that Havelock was given the J Edgar and son rider of the night trophy for the Comets, as a top-scoring guest, tells its own story.

He had two wins in his six rides – in heats 13 and 15 – for a 13-point haul while Nieminen was also in double figures with 11, although six came from his tactical ride win.

MATCH FACTS

Workington Comets 42: Gary Havelock 13; Tomi Reima 2; Kauko Nieminen 11, Joe Haines 2, Carl Stonehewer 5, Charles Wright 2, John Branney 5.

Berwick Bandits 51: Adrian Rymel 7, Rider replacement for Norbert Magosi; Michal Makovsky 16, Paul Clews 6; Paul Cooper 8; Guglielmo Franchetti 14; Scott Smith 0; John McPhail 0.

HEAT BY HEAT

Heat 1: Rymel. Havelock, Reima, Clews 3-3 (66.6)

Heat 2: Franchetti, Wright, Branney. Smith (f, exc) 6-6 (awarded)

Heat 3: Makovsky, Clews, Haines, Nieminen 7-11 (67.4)

Heat 4: Cooper, Franchetti, Branney, Stonehewer (ret) 8-16 (68.3)

Heat 5: Nieminen, Rymel, Haines, McPhail 12-18 (66.7)

Heat 6: Franchetti, Havelock, Cooper, Reima 14-22 (67.2)

Heat 7: Makovsky, Wright, Clews, Stonehewer 16-26 (68.0)

Heat 8: Makovsky, Branney, Reima, Franchetti 19-29 (68.0)

Heat 9: Nieminen (tr), Cooper, Franchetti, Haines 25-32 (67.9)

Heat 10: Makovsky, Havelock, Clews, Wright 27-36 (67.1)

Heat 11: Stonehewer, Rymel, Cooper, Wright 30-39 (68.1)