Tyne / Tweed Trophy – 1st leg
Berwick Bandits 43 Newcastle Diamonds 50
The Newcastle “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds went seven points up away at the Berwick Bandits on Saturday, leaving them in pole position for Sunday’s second leg of the 2011 Tyne / Tweed Trophy against traditional season openers from the Scottish / Northumbrian Borders.
A remarkably sharp-from-the-gate septet of Diamonds left the Bandits snoozing on the starting line far too many times, and despite the home side throwing a good number of thrilling passes into the equation, the number of points they could haul back was no where near enough to get back on terms with rampant Newcastle.
The “tale of the tapes” told a deeply-dark story for Berwick who could only win five races compared to Newcastle’s 10, and even a thrilling 8-1 to the home side in Heat 12 could not tip the balance away from the Geordie side.
Newcastle were in control from the off with Derek Sneddon, stand-in Diamonds’ skipper scorching away from the gate to take a famous victory ahead of his own Tyneside Dane, Rene Bach and Berwick’s new International Dane, Charlie Gjedde in a Diamond’s 1-5 heat result.
Richie Worrall, until this match – a complete unknown in the are, stunned the crowd with an excellent Heat Two win over the vibrant Jade Mudgway, and all this in his very first race ever on the Shielfield Park track.
Bandit’s thrill-a-minute new boy from Australia, Kozza Smith was would up like a watch spring, and lunged at the tapes in a nervy debut ride in Heat Three ending up off a 15 metre handicap, a deficit too great to overcome despite some excellent chasing throughout.
9-15 down Josef Franc, returning to his parent club, hit the power-button and grabbed a stack of grip on coming off the second bend to fly past the rapid starting Sneddon to take a decisive race win in Heat Five – his second and the club’s second in the match to hold the deficit at six points.
Stuart Robson and Lubos Tomicek shot out from the tapes in Heat seven, but the 1-5 was rescued to a degree for the home side with Lee Complin taking the Tyneside Czech comfortably off bend four on the opening lap as the score progressed to 17-25.
Mudgway squeezed his way between Sneddon and Worrall on the second bend of Heat Eight, and with Hynek Stichauer passing Worrall a lap later, Berwick had pulled two back with the score now at 21-27.
Come Heat Ten and Berwick were somewhat fortunate not to have another 1-5 hit against them as Robson’s engine blew on the third lap when in a maximum position with Tomicek, losing out with the resultant 3-3 with Gjedde taking second.
Bach and Sneddon didn’t suffer the same back luck in the 11th though as they gated hard over the sleepy Complin and new reserve from Hungary, Tamas Sike to take an easy 1-5 and push the score to 28-38.
With Berwick now trailing by 10, team manager Ian Rae used his tactical ride option on Smith in Heat 12, who slotted into second passing Tomicek on lap two, followed by his own observant partner Mudgway who let him through for his 6 doubled points in the Berwick 8-1 to narrow the gap to 36-39.
A Newcastle 2-4 in the 13th followed by a Robson win in the 14th over Mudgway and Franc and the win on the night belonged to the Diamonds, but there was still Heat 15 to go, a race finished 40 minutes later.
As Smith, Franc, Robson and Lemon came up to the tapes the paramedic was called away to deal with an emergency in the crowd to deal with a fan who had fallen ill, but once he returned things still didn’t run smoothly.
Robson became the meat in a Bandit first bend sandwich at the first attempt, falling to the ground with the referee ordering an all-4-back re-run, in which Robson was back on the deck when a wild inside attempt of a pass by Smith inside the Diamond on the first bend of lap sending both riders into the fence.
The referee had no option but to exclude Smith, but Robson could not take his place in the next re-run due to a pain in his foot, although thankfully it is expected he’ll be fully fit for Sunday’s second leg.
Newcastle’s team manager George English was keen to point out afterwards that all his team deserved praise, saying: “All my team deserved credit for the success tonight and I was particularly please with the manner our new reserve lads went about their job.
“Richie Worrall was brilliant, and even though Kyle Newman only scored one, he was still right in there in the thick of the action and deserved a lot more for his efforts.
“I think the way we rode the Bandits were fortunate not to be a lot further behind after their first leg, as our lads were on fire tonight although the most fortunate Diamond is Stuart who was lucky to escape serious injury in the Heat 15 crash with Smith who really didn’t have to make such a potentially disastrous move to gat past, it really was frightening to watch and thankfully Stu seems to have survived with very light injuries, indeed he should be riding in the second leg tonight – although he blew one motor early on and had his second one severely bashed about in Heat 15, so we’re not sure what he’ll be riding just yet.”
Tyne / Tweed Trophy – 2nd leg
Newcastle Diamonds 49 (99) Berwick Bandits 44 (87) )
The Newcastle “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds started last night’s second leg of the Tyne Tweed Trophy against in pole position having taken a seven point lead at Berwick on Saturday, but there was one concern – would new star Stuart Robson be fit.
At Shielfield Park 24 hours previously the Sunderland-born racer was taken into the fence by Bandit, Aussie Kozza Smith who got into bother trying an inside pass under Robbo in Heat 15 resulting in an ambulance ride complaining of a pain in the foot.
Thankfully come the start at Brough Park yesterday Robson had declared himself fit to ride, taking his place in Heat Three which he took in excellent form, passing the track expert that is Czech Josef Franc, now a Bandits’ heat leader taking the score on the night to 11-7, strengthening the Diamonds’ grip on the overall lead to 61-50.
Berwicks new number one, Dane Charlie Gjedde had a quiet Saturday night, but blew Brough Park apart taking two decisive wins in his opening races, whilst Czech Hynek Stichauer forced his way round fellow countryman, Lubos Tomicek on bend two only inches from the fence in a Heat Five 2-4, tightening the match to a 16-14 Newcastle lead.
Lee Complin took the Newcastle pair wide and high in Heat Six to take a solid lead in a shared 3-3 race with Tamas Sike drifting wide on bend four, losing his place to Derek Sneddon to maintain the two point difference, Newcastle still leading by nine for the trophy.
Heat Eight took three attempts to run, with controversy reigning when Jade Mudgway was excluded for a first bend fall, which for all intense and purposes looked like an active assist off the bike from Richie Worrall, but in that re-run without the Bandit, Stichauer split the home pair for a 4-2 with the score now 26-22.
Tomicek confounded the experts in Heat Nine to lead from the off and take a well-deserved three points, but behind both Tamas Sike and Complin passed Robson, the Diamond managing to regain one place in the 4-2 (30-24).
Both Bach and Sneddon went past Smith in tight formation down the back straight in Heat 10, only for Franc then to power up and battle hard with Bach to the end, the Bandit just stealing the second placed points in the 4-2 whilst Stichauer shocked the form book to the core in 11, taking the win having passed Gjedde and Lemon in the process and take a famous victory in the 3-3 which moved on the score to 37-29.
A second excellent win from Tomicek in Heat 12 put the Diamonds on and unassailable 90 points overall to clinch the title for the fourth season running.
Pride was still to play for over the last three races, and Berwick pushed one final effort in the 14th with the Bandits’ team manager Ian Rae nominating Franc as a tactical ride for double points, but with Robson gating and in front Newman fall alarmingly at the back on bend four resulting in a re-run without the new reserve.
In the re-run Robson failed to make the gate and ended up in third place with the tactical double out in front, and despite a super-human effort from the Diamond, Franc won for his six points in the 2-7, tightening the match at 46-41.
Team manager George English said: “We started last season with a good win in this competition and then went on to take three major national titles, so this all bodes well for the coming season and as ever this time it’s the League title we’re after.
Reports and pictures thanks to our friends at Newcastle Diamonds Speedway.
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