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Last Updated: Nov 28th, 2010 - 10:22:29 |
Despite earlier reports Bandits’ number one, Adrian Rymel did not undergo surgery on Saturday in the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh, but it was confirmed that he has a broken bone in his neck following the crash at Armadale Stadium on Friday.
He has also suffered damage to the right hand side of his spinal cord, and earlier on Saturday could move his left arm and leg with little difficulty.
He will undergo a further scan and x-ray on his right shoulder which also had been damaged, and further information will be released as and when as his situation is constantly monitored by his team of medical specialists.
A huge get well card was at the track on Saturday and a massive 200 plus fans, riders and staff signed the document that will be delivered to the popular Czech Bandit later this weekend.
The A & J Scott sponsored Berwick Bandits squeezed out a narrow lead over the Redcar Bears in Saturday’s first leg of the 2010 Tweed / Tees Trophy, but it was at a cost for both teams on a manic night which resulted in four riders pulling out hurt as all hell let loose.
Early delays presented the match referee, Dave Watters, and the track staff a nightmare scenario of only managing seven races with only 50 minutes left to go before the 9.30pm curfew, yet Heat 15 ended right as the clocks chimed the bottom of the hour in a mammoth effort of which everyone should be very proud, despite the original 13 riders being reduced to nine.
The Bears were already a side augmented by guests to cover injury, but with both sides losing two competitors each, there were, by necessity, several three-rider only races and one, an almost unheard of event, a race with only two participants as reserves ran out or races.
There was also a starting gate tape issue on Saturday as seen in Heat One when Marcin Rempala caught sight of Tomas Suchanek flinch momentarily before the tapes rose, triggering the Berwick Pole’s reflex action to take him into the tapes and onto a 15 meter handicap in the re-run from which he could not recover as Lee Complin too a big win over the Bears’ Elite League guest, Stuart Robson in a 3-3.
New Polish sensation Grzegorz Stróżyk (Pronounced Stroo-Shek) made a stunning debut in the UK, riding high and wild to many a heart in many a mouth to take a first race win in fine style as part of a Berwick 5-1, who moved ahead 8-4.
Greg Blair, a former Bandit, pulled up in agony at the end of the race having bizarrely ridden over his own foot, a feat he had managed to do two days previously at Redcar as well, but soon recovered.
Michal Makovsky is a man-rejuvenated currently as he hammered home a big win in Heat Three’s shared points over former World number one Gary Havelock, before Stróżyk got a little too enthusiastic in the fourth to anticipate the start too speedily as he touched the tapes with his helmet peak to receive a starting gate penalty.
Jade Mudgway was brought in to replace him but it was Redcar’s guest from the Birmingham Brummies, Aaron Summers who excelled as he shot round from third to first on bend two easing through a virtually non-existent gap as the New Zealander set up his chase, and tried so hard that he fell on bend three to end up stone last in the Bears’ 2-4 as they closed the gap to 13-11.
Suchanek twitched again at the gate in Heat Five with Berwick skipper jolting forward as a result as the third tapes penalty of the match was dished out with Stróżyk coming in as his replacement, but it was Makovsky who jetted away for the win with the new boy third in a 4-2.
The smooth-running of the match went haywire come Heat Six when Rempala, from the gate seemed to get a completely unexpected blast of power going towards bend one causing him to rear wildly with his head looking like he’d been garrotted on an invisible wire sending him careering at speed up and over into the shale face-first, his bike launching up and into Blair who went down in the melee against the first bend fence.
The track ambulance was immediately dispatched with both riders receiving much treatment, but Blair walked back to the pits nursing his injured wrist as Berwick’s Pole tool a trip in the ambulance where he had his nasty and bloodied facial lacerations dealt with and was told it looked like he may have a broken nose as his helmet was written off, having done the job it was made for.
Neither rider took any further part in the match with the eventual re-run ending up shared 3-all, but again in Heat Seven the match came to a halt on bend one when, in an incident called back for a re-start with all four riders, Carl Wilkinson went down heavily after his front wheel and Havelock’s rear wheel suffered a coming together with the result another delay with the Scunthorpe man guesting for the Bears was also withdrawn, this time with an upper arm injury.
In the re-run Stróżyk, in for Mudgway who was feeling the painful aftershock of his fall, ran a hard race, but went up on his back wheel on bend three launching skywards, and plummeting down front wheel first in an awful looking fall, yet the Pole literally bounced to his feet and walked away unscathed, but was excluded from the resultant two-man re-run – a 3-2 to Berwick which took the score to 23-18.
Four riders down and up against the clock, the pace stepped up several fold with the two minute warning going on as the previous races were ending with Peter Juul Larsen making a fine fight in Heat Eight with the wild man Stróżyk who took his three points bouncing all over the track avoiding the fence by millimetres in the 3-3.
Heat Nine and three only again with Summers miles ahead from the start in another shared race before that man Stróżyk again shocked former World Champion Havelock by soundly beating the Bears’ skipper with Clews managing to overhaul Larsen on the final lap to ease Berwick two more points ahead at 33-26.
Complin took the 11th comfortably over Robson in another 3-3 with one rider short whilst Clews finally made the grade in Heat 12 to go well into the lead with Stróżyk in a good second over Havelock – until the Pole suffered a rear puncture on lap four losing the second place to the Bear, but stayed ahead of Larsen under great adversity to form a hard won 4-2 (40-31).
Summers had been getting progressively faster all night and upped a notch once more in the 13th, although helped on his with as Complin failed to make the two minute allowance and had to go from the 15 metre mark preventing him stopping Summers’ win and Robson’s second in the Redcar maximum pulling them back into it at 41-36.
Heat 14 was that rare beast of a 2-rider only race as rider resources hit critical, and it was a well deserved win after a non-too-easy battle with Makovsky in the 2-3 to take the Bears within reach of pulling off a shock draw should they take the five in the final race, but with Complin in determined mood, passing Robson at speed to share the race the win was Berwick’s albeit a slender one, 46-42.
Berwick team manager Ian Rae was a stressed man afterwards saying: “This won’t go down as my favourite weekend in speedway as we have real headaches in trying to formulate teams for forthcoming matches, not to mention our final league matches next weekend, and all that coupled with the worry of our injured riders, but we took a win tonight under extreme conditions and the character of the Bandits won through, with all eyes on Grzegorz Stróżyk who really impressed everyone tonight, although if he did things a little less wildly it would help the blood pressure somewhat.”
Berwick “A & J Scott” Bandits 46
1. Adrian Rymel – Rider replacement
2. Marcin Rempala 0,Fx,Ns,N = 0 withdrawn facial injuries
3. Paul Clews © 0,E,1*,1,3 = 5+1
4. Michal Makovsky 3,3,3,2,2,0 = 13
5. Lee Complin 3,2,3,3,1,3 = 15
6. Jade Mudgway ® 2*,F,N,Ns,N = 2+1 withdrawn painful bruising
7. Grzegorz Stróżyk (guest) ® 3,E,1,Fx,3,3,1 = 11
Redcar “Simpson Racing UK / RIS” Bears 42
1. Stuart Robson (guest) 2,2,2,2*,2 = 10+1
2. Tomas Suchanek 1*,0,1*,1* = 3+3
3. Gary Havelock © 1*,2,2,2 = 7+1
4. Carl Wilkinson (guest) 2,Fn,N,N = 2 withdrawn upper arm injury
5. Aaron Summers (guest) 3,1*,3,3,1* = 11+2
6. Peter Juul Larsen ® 1,1,N,2,2,Ns,0,0,3 = 9
7. Greg Blair (guest) ® 0,N,Fn,N,N = 0 withdrawn injured wrist
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