Berwick Bandits match against Birmingham very nearly never even started after concerns were raised over the state of the track following a day and a half of heavy rain.

To the untrained eye the track looked pretty good, but the top surface was greasy and it was universally agreed that the top surface be scraped off, which it was followed by re-grading with the circuit getting the go ahead at 7.35pm.

Heat one set off at 7.39pm as the meeting pushed on at a rapid rate to beat the curfew of 9.30pm, which it just scraped into at completion.

Early on Birmingham held their own with the home side, running three straight shared heats to keep it all square, but the Bandits got to grips with the conditions quicker to start banging in the big wins from the fourth heat onwards.

Rymel seemed a little down on speed earlier on but soon made up for lost time where as this week it was Michal Makovsky’s turn to reign supreme where as Aarnio and Magosi played superb supporting rolls.

Paul Clews and Scott Smith both had excellent nights at reserve and Tony Atkin scored just what was needed, thankfully escaping injury in a fall in his third race when following the falling Birkinshaw in Heat eight.

Birmingham’s big three steered the team well enough but the important back up to Lyons, Watson and Legault was critically missing, not helped when James Birkinshaw fell in the afore mentioned Heat eight, and out of the meeting with suspected ankle damage on one of his former tracks.

Berwick’s promoter Peter Waite said: “We were lucky to get this match on tonight and it took a lot of determined work from me and the track staff who worked excellently to make sure we had a meeting for the fans despite the damage the rain had done.

“The meeting was fine with some good racing too, and the result went the right way too popping us a little further back up the league too increasing our teams self-belief again which is what we’ll need in bucket loads this Monday and Tuesday where we desperately need something out of our trips to Reading and the Isle of Wight.”

Anderson’s Quality Butchers Berwick Bandits 58
Adrian Rymel © 2,3,3,3,F = 11
Tony Atkin 1*,1,Fx,2* = 4+2
Michal Makovsky 2,3,2,3,2 = 12
Tero Aarnio 1*,2*,1*,2* = 6+4
Norbert Magosi 2*,2,2*,2* = 8+3
Paul Clews ® 2,1*,3,3 = 9+1
Scott Smith ® 1*,3,3,1 = 8+1

Birmingham Brummies 34
Kyle Legault 3,1,1,1,1 = 7
Jack Hargreaves Fx,0,2,0 = 2
Jason Lyons © 3,6^,R,2 = 11
Lee Smart 0,0,1,0 = 1
Craig Watson 1,2,3,0,3 = 9
Jack Roberts ® 0,0,0,0,1 = 1
James Birkinshaw ® 3,R,Fx,N = 3