Injury-hit Berwick Bandits’ lost 49-41 at Edinburgh Monarchs in a Cab Direct Championship match in which they needed to take maximum points to stay in the play-off race.
The Borders club went into the meeting without top duo Peter Kildemand and Jordan Jenkins but trailed by only two points going into heat eight.
Captain Jye Etheridge dropped just one point from his opening rides only to suffer shoulder and neck injuries as the innocent victim of a first bend tangle between Monarchs’ Mitch Cluff and Reid Battye of Berwick.
Two heats later former Monarchs’ No 1 Victor Palovaara was also counted out of the meeting after crashing heavily into the air fence.
Battye picked up the slack, taking seven rides and adding to his growing reputation with an impressive ten points but defeat was tough on Nick Morris (pictured by Jack Cupido) who was an injury doubt for the meeting after crashing heavily at Northampton on Monday.
He shrugged off the ankle injury and bagged an impressive 14 as he took the battle to the home side.
Bandits are favourites to take the aggregate point when the teams round off their Championship campaign at Shielfield Park next Saturday but before that, Berwick entertain Redcar Saturday on Saturday (tapes-up 7pm).
Stewart Dickson, Bandits’ team manager, said: “Despite the injury setbacks, we kept battling away and, in a lot of ways, it was one of our best away results this season.”
The result means Edinburgh completed their home league season undefeated and took a step towards qualifying for the play-offs but their top scorer, Kye Thomson, said: “it was tougher than we thought it was going to be. They pushed us for three-quarters of the meeting.”
Monarchs: Dan Thompson 9+1, Jonatan Grahn 8+1, Paco Castagna 8+1, Kye Tomson 13, Mitch Cluff 0, Ben Whalley 3+1
Bandits: Jason Edwards 3, Jye Etheridge 5, Victor Palovaara 4, Dayle Wood 3+2, Nick Morris 14, Jack Smith 2+1, Reid Battye 10+1
Gasgow Tigers beat Poole Pirates, the league leaders, 47-43 victory in the Cab Direct Championship at Ashfield with former Berwick racer, Leon Flint, and Chris Harris being were the home heroes again with two 5-1s in Heats 13 and 15.
Freddy Hodder also delivered a vital contribution of paid 10 and guest Anders Rowe was outstanding with nine.
Cami Brown, the Allied Vehicles Tigers’ team manager, who used two guests, said: “It was another nail-biting finale for the fans, but it’s a great win for the team.
“The team showed huge grit to get the job done. Right now the only objective is to get to the play-offs, and that win is a large step in the right direction.
“Leon and Chris should take all the plaudits, they were sensational again. They completely bossed the crucial heats to get us over the line.
“However, Freddy was fantastic. He made all the difference with paid 10 and the two 5-1s he got were absolutely pivotal.
“Sadly for him his bike packed up twice when he was in scoring positions in his last two rides, I feel he would have scored more and our victory a bit more comfortable.
“Anders was a great guest for us. He had to move his schedules to take the booking for us and we are grateful to him for that. He was excellent, his swoop pass of Richard Lawson was one of the classiest moments of the night.”
Brown added: “We have away meetings at Plymouth and Redcar this week and then Scunthorpe in a fortnight here at Ashfield. Two points from those fixtures should be enough to secure our place in the top four. Once we are hopefully in the play-offs, we all start from zero.”
GLASGOW: Leon Flint 13, Chris Harris 11+2, Anders Rowe 9, Freddy Hodder 8+2, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 4, Anze Grmek 2, Sam Hagon 0.
POOLE: Slater Lightcap 9+2, Will Cairns 9, Zach Cook 8, Richard Lawson 7+2, Lewis Kerr 7+1, Kyle Newman 3+2, Cooper Rushen r/r.
Poole win aggregate point.
