BERWICK Bandits shared the spoils in a thrilling match in the Midlands last night.
Following a 46-44 victory over the Leicester Lions on Saturday at Shielfield Park, the two teams’ return last night was even tighter.
Josef Franc had returned from the Czech Long Track Championships to rejoin his club.
He was right back into the thick of it with a fine heat three win from a lightening gate to the flag over the usually unbeatable home skipper Richard Hall in a magnificent 5-1 with Kozza Smith which levelled the match 9-9.
The gap returned to two in favour of the Lions one race later with a Richard Sweetman win with Jan Graversen in third.
However, it was a fine pass of the Dane by Berwick skipper Lee Complin on lap two which stopped the home maximum brilliantly.
Charlie Gjedde finally had the Berwick fans on their feet cheering hard in heat five.
He held off the close attentions of Hall and Mathieu Tresarrieu to share the race and make the score 16-14.
Heats six and seven were also 3-3 shares, but a superb Smith move – diving round Graversen in the seventh, scraping the boards took the vital three points in heat eight with the match all square again (24-24).
Complin made another fine gate in the ninth to take an early and unassailable lead .
However, the Premier League’s only Russian racer Sergey Darkin made sure of holding off Franc in the 10th,John Oliver resisting all Smith could launch at him from behind in a home 4-2 to put the Lions 31-29 up.
Gjedde excelled again in heat 11 in taking another three points, and for a while a Bandits 5-1 looked on the cards.
However, a surprise spurt from Sweetman shot him past the Bandit in the eventual Berwick 2-4 which again levelled the match 33-33. Smith’s heat 12 battle with Tresarrieu, which the visiting Aussie won well, kept it tight at 36-35, as it was at the end of heat 13.
Franc set up the perfect end to an incredible match by taking a great win in the penultimate race, again a 3-3 leaving the whole affair resting on a knife edge with the last race left.
The deserved draw was achieved with the ninth 3-3 of the meeting, won by Sweetman, but the hard work was down to Complin and Franc.
SCORERS: Leicester Lions – Sergei Darkin 10, John Oliver 4+2, Mathieu Tresarrieu 5+1, Richard Hall (Captain) 6+1, Richard Sweetman 12+1, Jamie Courtney 1+1, Jan Graversen 7+2; Berwick Bandits – Charlie Gjedde 6, Hynek Stichauer – Rider replacement, Kozza Smith 10+1, Josef Franc 10+2, Lee Complin (Captain) 13, Tamas Sike 0, Jade Mudgway 6
