Swales: Tonight will be a fight!
Redcar co-promoter, Jamie Swales knows tonight’s Cab Direct Championship clash against Berwick will be a tough fight despite the Bears being undefeated at Shielfield Park since 2019. The “Agilia” Bears, fresh from their superb win against Oxford travel north to take on the Bandits with tapes up at 7pm.
With the Bears in superb form, many may see the visitors as strong favourites but Swales knows it will be far from simple for his side, “ We don’t ever go to Berwick thinking it will be an easy match, Berwick have quite a unique track, there isn’t many in the league of that size these days! If you don’t turn up with the attitude that it will be a battle then you have already been beaten.”
Swales still has ambitions of finishing at the top of the table, despite the Bears currently sitting 5th, “ It’s going to be hard but we do still aim to top the table and beating the league leaders tonight helps our cause! There is no difference between finishing 2nd and 6th so we still have to aim for the top position as the team who finishes top gets to choose their 2 opponents in their mini play-off group. Nevertheless, as long as we finish in the top 6, we are mainly focused on hitting form come the play-offs.”
The enthusiastic Swales has also reinstated his strong belief in Erik Riss who had a rare off night against the Cheetahs with paid 4, “ Erik is going to one of his favourite tracks (Berwick) tonight and he always goes well at Berwick. Last night, it was tough for him as the track was very different to last week which didn’t help him with his bike set-up. Hopefully, tonight we will see the best of Erik as Berwick’s track preparation is usually the same week in week out which means he should have the set-up from the start.”
Berwick are besieged with injuries ahead of the meeting with the hosts forced to draft in 3 guests. Richie Worrall stands in at 1 for Rory Schlein whilst Oxford’s Luke Killeen replaces collarbone injury victim Jacob Hook at reserve.
In further terrible news for the Bandits, Thomas Jorgensen crashed out at Edinburgh last night with the former Bear suffering serious back injuries. Everyone at Redcar Speedway sends their best wishes to Thomas. With Jorgensen unable to take his place in the side, Berwiick bring in Birmingham’s Justin Sedgmen as a guest.
Redcar again track an unchanged 1-7 with Luke Harrison looking to capitalise on his extended youth experience around Shielfield Park to score some more points for the Bears whilst Charles Wright will be hoping to make it 6 double figure scores (as a Bear) on the spin at the home of the Bandits.
For any supporters unable to attend the match, the fixture will be live streamed at www.tv.berwickspeedway.com
Berwick Bandits
- Richie Worrall (G) 7.69
- Jonas Knudsen 5.83
- Jye Etheridge 6.07
- Leon Flint 7.04
- Justin Sedgmen (G) 7.04
- Luke Killeen (G) 4.00
- Connor Coles 2.42
Redcar “Agilia” Bears1 Danny King 8.27
2 Danyon Hume 5.24
3 Connor Bailey 4.63
4 Erik Riss 7.81
5 Charles Wright © 8.10
6 Jason Edwards 4.25
7 Luke Harrison (G) 3.14
™: Gavin Parr