Family traders save Berwick Bandits speedway club

Nov 18 2008 by Dan Warburton, The Journal

A SPEEDWAY club has been saved from extinction by a butcher and a shopkeeper, who now plan to expand the team.

Berwick Bandits seemed destined to collapse after owner Peter Waite put the Northumberland club on the market.

But a last-ditch deal late on Saturday saved the stricken team.

Life-long speedway fan John Anderson, who owns Anderson’s Quality Butchers of North Berwick, and Lynda Waite, owner of the Cornhill Village Shop, formed the consortium and bought the threatened outfit. Now Mr Anderson, who has been a supporter of the club since 1974, is hoping to expand its fan base and invest in the team. The 59-year-old runs his North Berwick butcher’s business with his wife, Elizabeth, 58, and his three sons, Mark, Ryan and Cameron.

Last night he said he was still hoping that more willing partners would come forward and buy a share in the venture.

He said: “We were the main sponsor for the last three years, but when Paul announced he was giving it up, I was very keen to start up a consortium.

“I wanted around six people to come forward, but everywhere I went was just a brick wall.

“It has the potential for corporate hospitality, and we are going to restructure the pricing system. The track itself needs a lot of work to bring it up to standard. The better the track, the more fans. It was only about three weeks ago that Lynda and I got together and formed the partnership. When no one looked like they wanted to get involved, it was actually Lynda who said we need to take the bull by the horns and just do it. The truth of the matter is that it was all down to Lynda. We’ve been staunch Berwick supporters for some time now and we would have been heartbroken if it closed.”

Mrs Waite, 36, owns her family-run Northumberland store with her sister, Julie, 36, and her mother Morag, 55. Her husband, David, 41, also owns his own business doing landscape gardening.

She said her passion for the sport was the reason for pledging cash to the investment. She said: “We’ve been fans for three years. We travel the country and people show real dedication. They are all such friendly people and it’s a real big family event. We just thought it was worth the gamble to try and save the club.”

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