FOR the first time in a month both North East speedway clubs are back in action at home this weekend – and both are hosting seriously hard Premier League encounters.
The A & J Scott Berwick Bandits, following a week of hectic work behind the scenes, welcome Glasgow Tigers to Shielfield Park tonight (7pm) – a team who look remarkably well set up to tackle the home side.
The Tigers’ strongest weapon could be that they boast one of last year’s most exciting Bandits, Michal Rajkowski of Poland at one of their reserve slots, potentially allowing him seven rides tonight.
James Grieves is another ex-Bandit with vast Shielfield Park experience, whilst former Elite League star Joe Screen leads their side with a touch of high-class at number one.
Berwick will be using Craig Cook of Edinburgh as a guest replacement for the injured Dane, Charlie Gjedde who has had to pull out on medical grounds having aggravated a nasty shoulder injury when riding for the Belle Vue Aces on Monday.
The Bandits also welcome a new Swede into their line-up as Alex Edberg comes in as a temporary injury replacement for Czech Hynek Stichauer who is still nursing a badly dislocated shoulder from three weeks ago, with several weeks still to sit out.
Newcastle Diamonds return to their Newcastle Stadium tomorrow to take on the Redcar Bears, with the later time of 7pm – an offer of kindness from the Diamonds to allow extra travelling time to Bear Matej Kus on his return from the Czech Republic Grand Prix, being held in Prague tonight.
It will be an emotional rollercoaster for Newcastle’s management, riders and fans as it will be the first time everyone has reconvened since the tragic news filtered through from Poland last week that their new Slovenian rider, Matej Ferjan, had been discovered dead in his car at his Gorzow home.
Diamonds team manager George English said: “Speedway goes on, and it’s hard to get your head back into gear at times like this especially with our match at Redcar being called off on Thursday, but we did have one space to fill that was so sadly vacated last weekend and we have had to fill it.
“Jason King, our skipper, has recently passed his fitness tests and will return to our side tomorrow, although we have had many requests from other teams to take him on loan once he was fit.
“Thankfully we turned down all those offers – and it’s just as well as following the awful news about Matej we didn’t have to waste time or thinking time on getting a rider in place.”
Newcastle also welcome back the vastly experienced Mark Lemon, now recovered from a triple collar-bone break picked up a month ago.
After several practice sessions the Aussie is keen to resume his career, and tomorrow is the day.
WEEKEND LINE-UPS
BERWICK BANDITS: Craig Cook (guest), Kozza Smith, Lee Complin (Captain), Alex Edberg, Josef Franc, Tamas Sike, Jade Mudgway
GLASGOW TIGERS: Joe Screen, Theo Pijper, Christian Henry – Rider replacement, Matthew Wethers (guest), James Grieves, Nick Morris, Michal Rajkowski
NEWCASTLE DIAMONDS: Mark Lemon, Derek Sneddon, Claes Nedermark, Jason King (Captain), Stuart Robson, Kyle Newman, Richie Worrall
REDCAR BEARS: Jason Lyons, Lubos Tomicek, Matej Kus, Gary Havelock (Captain), Aaron Summers, Peter Juul, Robert Branford
