Maiden Makovsky maximum in Berwick victory romp.

Berwick Bandits notched up their biggest score for many a long month on Saturday night, with even more satisfaction coming from the fact the 32 point win was over their biggest rivals, the Newcastle Diamonds in the next instalment of the new British League Cup.

And yet up until Heat 9 it looked a much tighter affair with Berwick only a slender 6 points ahead after heat 8, a heat where Newcastle used a "golden double" tactical substitute for double points for Bjerre who started off a 15 metre handicap. He finished second for 4 points, and giving Newcastle their second heat advantage of the night.

Bjerre had a fine night, winning Heat 1 in the fastest time of the season, and only 1.5 seconds outside the all-time track record of 64.4, yet even his challenge dwindled towards the end of the fixture.

On a deeper track than of late, which required some vigorous grading through the whole match, the home team adapted better and relished the grippy conditions which were sadly lacking in recent weeks.
Beyond Bjerre, Newcastle struggled to find any success, although reserve Jamie Robertson (only 16) rode a determined match to gain 4 points from 2 good second places.

Berwick, however had a multitude of star performances, topped by the superb and untouchable Czech Michal Makovsky who raced to a perfect 15 points out of 15.

The Czech was on cloud 9 afterwards fizzing with the thrill saying: "Tonight was my very first maximum in my entire career, and I mean anywhere in the world, not just in United Kingdom. It was an amazing feeling which I put down to my new GM engine tuned by Eddie Bull. It was the best engine I have ever raced, so fast, so powerful.... Brilliant!! What a difference it has made."

Berwick's Geordie reserve, Rob Grant raced to his best performance in Bandit colours to date with two excellent wins in his 9 point haul, whilst for the second night in a row the choice of guests to cover the injured absentees paid amazing trumps with both Neil Collins of Hull and Seemond Stephens of Exeter being paid for 11 points, only being beaten by Bjerre of the opposition in Heat 5.

Bouncing back from his bad crash the night before at Edinburgh, Czech Josef Franc returned tonight as the hero again with some superb swoops and thrilling, energy-filled racing, not least in his heat 8 win, holding out the fierce challenges from behind of Bjerre to bring the house down.

Only being six points down with seven heats to go, Newcastle looked on to record a respectable defeat, and who knows at that stage a possible narrow win, but the last seven heats produced six maximum Berwick 5-1 heat wins and a 4-2, with the home team winning the last 7 heats 34-8 in a visiting collapse that had to be seen to be believed.

Promoter Peter Waite had nothing but praise on Saturday night for his lads, commenting: "I had told them we had been lucky previously to get the points we had, and they had to go and win matches on their own merit. I think tonight's score proves they have really listened and have done more than anyone of us could have hoped for. I doubt anyone would have predicted we could have won by 32 points, 8 or 10 maybe, but 32!! Only one word.... Stunning!"

Scorers:

Berwick
Paul Bentely 12, Josef Franc 7, Seemond Stephens 11, Neil Collins 7, Michal Makovsky 15, Rob Grant 9, Carl Shield 1

Newcastle
Kenneth Bjerre 14, Richard Juul 1, Rune Knudsen 1, Kevin Little 5, Lee Dicken 2, William Lawson 2, James Robertson 4