Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds 44

Andersons Quality Butchers Berwick Bandits 46

 (Tyne Tweed Trophy – Second Leg)

Newcastle win trophy 90-89 on aggregate

The Berwick Bandits confounded the experts by taking a magnificent victory at Newcastle on Sunday night in the Tyne Tweed Trophy 44-46 proving their strength in depth.

Having gone down 43-46 the night before at home it was widely expected that the Bandits were set for a big fall, but the new-look side had other ideas and fought to the bitter end for an excellent victory.

In the opening eight heats Berwick recorded seven wins, only Newcastle’s George Stancl breaking the pattern in Heat Seven by beating Stanislaw Burza, Berwick’s guest but the home side looked woeful.

Four points up at the half way stage the Bandits suffered a mid-match hiccup as Franc became Newcastle’s second heat winner in nine and Henry did likewise in 10 to level the score at 30 all, but Newcastle had eased back in front on aggregate.

Newcastle had the trophy sealed as their own by the end of Heat 13, but Berwick were after the glory of the night and grabbed two impressive 1-5s in the last two heats, the final one over the powerful duo of Franc and Stancl by Rymel and Burza to sneak the win on the night and just miss the trophy by a point.

Norbert Magosi had a superb night, winning three of his heats whilst the lowly-scoring Guglielmo Franchetti picked up his point by scaring the living daylights out of the safety fence as he scraped round at speed off bend two in Heat 11 which he led briefly.

Adam McKinna, back at his old home from 2007 had a slow start but grabbed a vital and impressive paid win in Heat six when he beat Henry fairly and squarely over four laps to the joy of the visiting fans.

For Newcastle the weak points were obvious with the Skipper Christian Henry well down on form and looking for rapid improvement whilst Jason King and Ben Powell are still finding their feet at their new home but are sure to improve.

Sean Stoddart had another fine night with his eight point haul racing steadily and confidently indicating 2008 could be an excellent year for the young Scot.

Berwick’s top Czechs Makovsky and Rymel won four heats between them, enjoying some very hard racing especially with their fellow countrymen from Newcastle Stancl and Franc, thrilling the crowd with their passes wide round the boards.

Berwick Promoter Peter Waite said: “We were expected to come here tonight and lay down to be walked over but the 2008 Bandits are a side who don’t read scripts or take notice of reputations, so if they want the win badly enough they go and get it and boy did we get it tonight, it was awesome stuff to watch.”

“This is the sort of performance we intend to give out fans a lot more of in 2008 and make it a season to remember.”

Newcastle Sapphire Engineering Diamonds 44 (90)

1. Christian Henry © 1*,1,3,1 = 6+1

2. Ben Powell 2,0,1*,1 = 4+1

3. Josef Franc 2,2,3,3,0 = 10

4. Jason King 0,1*,1,0 = 2+1

5. George Stancl 2,3,3,3,1 = 12

6. Jamie Robertson ® 1*,1,0,N = 2+1

7. Sean Stoddart ® 2,1*,2,2*,1 = 8+2

Andersons Quality Butchers Berwick Bandits 46 (89)

1. Adrian Rymel 3,3,2,2,2* = 12+1

2. Guglielmo Franchetti 0,0,N,1* = 1+1

3. Tero Aarnio 1,0,0,0 = 1

4. Stanislaw Burza (Guest) 3,2,2,2*,3 = 12+1

5. Michal Makovsky 3,3,2,0 = 8

6. Norbert Magosi ® 3,N,3,0,1,3 = 10

7. Adam McKinna ® 0,0,2*,0 = 2+1