Edinburgh Scotwaste Monarchs 54

Anderson’s Quality Butchers Berwick Bandits 38

 (Premier League Knockout Cup – 1^st round -1^st leg)

16 points down after the first leg, the Berwick Bandits have set up a perfectly poised cup tie to come to a conclusion at Shielfield Park tonight (7.00pm).

In a stressful and tension-ridden meeting it was the Monarchs who took the early advantage with Berwick’s Michal Makovsky providing the visitors only heat winner in the opening nine races in Heat four when he jetted away to win easily.

With the score at 37-17 after the ninth, the Bandits got to grips with their least favourite track and out-scored the Monarchs 17-21 over the last 6 races, taking the winner in five before disaster struck in an explosive Heat 15.

Berwick, 49-38 down with the last race to go Henning Bager moved too hard on Ryan Fisher who fell resulting in the Bandit’s exclusion from the re-run, but in the second re-run it was Makovsky’s turn to feel the referee’s wrath when he was adjudged to have taken down Fisher leaving the two Monarchs with a free run for a 5-0 heat score increasing the overall deficit.

The last time Edinburgh came to Berwick they took the win, but since then the Bandits have found a rich vein of form that could take the aggregate points for the Cup right down to the wire in what is potentially a real thriller.

Edinburgh “Scotwaste” Monarchs 54

1. Derek Sneddon © 1,2*,0,1* = 4+2
2. Ryan Fisher 3,3,3,2,3 = 14
3. James Grieves (guest) 3,3,3,2,2* = 13+1
4. Thomas H. Jonasson 1,2*,1,1 = 5+1
5. Matthew Wethers 2,3,2,2 = 9
6. Lee Dicken (guest) ® 3,1,1*,0 = 5+1
7. Aaron Summers ® 1,1*,1,1* = 4+2

Andersons Quality Butchers Berwick Bandits 38

1. Adrian Rymel © Rider Replacement
2. Norbert Magosi 2,0,2,0,0 = 4
3. Henning Bager 2,1,2,3,3,0 = 11
4. Guglielmo Franchetti 0,0,1,N = 1
5. Michal Makovsky 3,0,2,3,6^,0 = 14
6. Tero Aarnio ® 0,2,0,0,3 = 5
7. Adam McKinna ® 0,0,1,0,2* = 3+1