Depleted Bears fall to heavy defeat

A depleted Redcar ‘ECCO Finishing Supplies’ Bears side fell to a heavy defeat at Newcastle on Sunday night, losing 64-26.

With Tobias Busch forced to miss the meeting through illness, things got even worse for the Bears with the problems at Stansted Airport due to the weather. Lightning strikes on Saturday night and Sunday morning caused issues with flights arriving and departing the airport, which unfortunately meant that the flight Jonas and Mikkel B Andersen were due to catch was delayed by a number of hours, resulting in them not getting back to the UK in time for the meeting.

Due to league rules, they could only be replaced by National League guests. At such short notice, it was tough to get riders but the Bears would like to thank local lads Josh Embleton and Gavin Parr for stepping in to cover. This did make the Bears task much more difficult, and indeed promoter Kevin Keay took to the microphone to apologise to both sets of fans for the situation.

Ben Barker continued his improved form, top scoring for the Bears with 13 points. Ludvig Lindgren top scored for the Diamonds with 13+1.

A full scorecard will appear later.