Berwick Jewson Bandits maintain their unbeaten run after some last heat heroics

He inflicted the only defeat of the night on countryman Josh Pickering who had threatened, almost single-handedly, to lead Edinburgh to victory over Scottish section pacesetters Berwick.

With guest Richard Lawson finishing second after a tremendous duel with the visiting number one, Berwick grabbed victory from a match which had seemed to be heading towards a Super Heat decider.

But victory came at a heavy cost as the Bandits, already without broken ankle victim Lewis Kerr for up to a month, saw reserve Bastian Borke end the evening en route for A&E.

The young Dane was complaining of lower back and pelvis pain after a spectacular first bend coming together with Monarchs’ skipper Paco Castagna in the penultimate heat.

Borke had been reserve-switched into heat 14 on the strength of another hugely entertaining performance capped by an epic heat eight in which he gave his opponents half the length of a straight before picking off first Lasse Fredriksen and then Connor Coles on the run to the flag to follow team-mate Danyon Hume home.

It more than made up for a disappointing reserves’ race in which Max James and the returning Coles recorded a maximum for the visitors.

Borke won heat four and with Schlein finishing third the deficit was cut to two points, only for Jye Etheridge to be controversially excluded by referee Jim McGregor in what seemed a clear case of first bend bunching in heat five, Pickering and Fredriksen heading home Drew Kemp in the rerun to open up a six-point lead.

Berwick team manager Stewart Dickson’s response was to use Schlein as a tactical substitute in place of the unfortunate Hume and the skipper responded by sharing a 5-1 with Lawson in six.

Lawson and Hume looked to have given Berwick a comfortable lead when they left Castagna and Thomson well adrift in 10.

That opened up a six-point gap.

Pickering then won heat 12 with ease but the drama was behind him.

Etheridge and Thomson had traded places early in the race, but the Bandit looked set for a straightforward second place until he picked up drive on the first bend of the last lap and was thrown into the second bend barrier, Borke doing exceptionally well to avoid him.

What had been a 4-2 became a 5-1 for the Monarchs, who again closed the gap to a couple of points.

They took advantage of Borke’s misfortune with Castagna dusting himself off to win the rerun, Coles grabbing third which levelled the scores going into 15.

Many Berwick fans were already preparing for the very real possibility of a Super Heat decider only for Schlein and Lawson to bring the crowd to its feet with their heat 15 heroics.

“We had to dig deep to beat a very good side,” Schlein admitted.

“In the end we had to battle hard and show some real character to get over the line.”

After a nine-hour wait at the Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital at Cramlington, doctors were able to confirm that Borke had no breaks or fractures.