The Berwick Bandits went down heavily at Edinburgh on Friday in a match where they lost the services of two riders to injury by the end of Heat Four!

First out was the exciting Italian, Guglielmo Franchetti who went down in lap one of the first heat requiring medical attention and an ambulance. It was later revealed he’d broken a collar bone and will now miss several weeks of action.

The Bandits surprisingly held their own early on, level after two and only two down (10-8) after Heat three but things were soon to go from bad to worse. Come Heat Four Manu Hauzinger finally made his debut for the club after he missed last week with a suspected collar bone injury, claiming it wasn’t as bad as it first seemed, but in Heat Four the Austrian dropped out of the running and indeed the meeting. It’s believed he has aggravated his own collar bone injury and again looks set to miss a currently indeterminate length of time in a drastic piece of luck for a team to take on board so early in a season.

Heat Four’s restaging ended up a maximum for the Monarchs once Wethers and Tully had passed the swift-starting McKinna putting the Bandits six down. Ten down after Heat 6, Norbert Magosi was brought in as a tactical ride although as a reserve replacement for Franchetti too seemed to cause some debate around the terraces. In a re-run following a first-attempt smash, Sneddon was away with Magosi behind for 4 doubled points, but his team mate McKinna passed him mid-race to reduce the doubled points to only two in a 3-4, not a 3-5.

Magosi hit trouble in Heat Nine too, losing control on the third lap and fell when in a scoring position leading to another home maximum 5-1 and took the over all score to 34-21. Rymel split Heat 11 with a good win and a 3-3, before Edinburgh hit home with a 4-2 and a 5-1 in the following two races taking the score to 51-28.

McKinna hit a great moment of glory in Heat 14 taking advantage of an engine failure as the tapes went up for the previously unbeaten William Lawson to win in style with his partner Aarnio behind in a shock Berwick 1-5. A Rymel fall in the final heat said it all as the thrilling American Ryan Fisher battled well with Berwick’s Makovsky to take the win and a Monarchs’ 4-2.

Berwick Promoter Peter Waite said: “I’m devastated tonight as we only had a full-strength team for about 10 seconds before Guglielmo hit the shale and ended up with a broken collarbone, and then three races later our debut-man Manu drops out too – It’s unbelievable! “As to what on Earth I do now is anyone’s guess, I really won’t have a clue until we get the accurate times they will be out of action to hand. Who’d be a promoter??

“I have to do something quickly though as Workington are racing us at Berwick tonight (Saturday) at 7.00pm and then we’re at their place at the same time on Monday so there’s not much sleep for me tonight!”