The Berwick Bandits regained the Border Trophy in emphatic style on Sunday afternoon, repelling a strong Workington Comets fightback to maintain their perfect start to the season.
In truth already had one hand on the trophy following Saturday night’s 22-point first leg victory and when Danyon Hume beat home skipper Craig Cook in heat one for the second night in a row, followed by a reserves 5-1 from Freddy Hodder and Bastian Borke, Comets fans may have feared another drubbing.
Instead, led by Antti Vuolas who shrugged off a pointless first ride to top scorer with 11 points and with Australian teenager Tate Zischke also improving as the afternoon went on, the home side steadily chipped away and had levelled the meeting with successive heat advantages in nine and ten inspired by Vuolas and his fellow debutant.
Indeed Workington provided five successive heat winners and seemed to have the momentum going into the closing three heats.
But Lewis Kerr firmly slammed the door on any possibility of a win on their return to second tier racing by storming to victory in heat 13, Berwick skipper Rory Schlein riding the wide line perfectly to secure a 5-1 for the visitors.
Drew Kemp split the home pairing of Claus Vissing and Sam McGurk in the penultimate heat but any Kerr killed any lingering doubt with another storming start to heat 15, Schlein tucking in behind the highly-impressive Vuolas before stepping forward to become the first Berwick captain to lift a trophy in many years.
Team manager Stewart Dickson said: “It’s a satisfying way to end what has by and large been a good weekend for us.
“Every rider has recorded at least one heat win over the 30 heats and we had to dig deep at times against Workington.
“There’s also a few things to work on but we now go into the BSN Series with both momentum and confidence.”
Berwick open the BSN Series against Glasgow Tigers at Shielfield Park on Saturday.
Comets: Craig Cook 7+1, Tate Zischke 7+1, Antti Vuolas 11, Claus Vissing 8, Troy Batchelor 7, Sam McGurk 2, Celina Liebmann 1+1
Bandits: Lewis Kerr 11, Danyon Hume 6+1, Jye Etheridge 8, Drew Kemp 4+1, Rory Schlein 11+1, Freddy Hodder 4+1, Bastian Borke 3+2
Referee Scorecard
workington_31.03.24_resReport by George Dodds – Berwick Speedway – Feature Image by Taz McDougall
