Friday, November 21, 2008
Skip Navigation LinksHome / Sport / Speedway

Speedway: Wightlink Islanders v Berwick Bandits - Young Shield

Advantage to Islanders in shield semi-final

By Bryn Williams - Wednesday, October 15, 2008
AFTER a scintillating home win last night (Tuesday), Wightlink Islanders speedway team will be raring to go for the second leg of their Young Shield semi-final on Saturday.
After their 53-42 victory, the Islanders will take an 11-point advantage with them to Berwick for the all-important second leg where, if they go through, they will meet the Redcar Bears or the Workington Comets in the final.
Jason Bunyan’s men had hoped to build a bigger advantage but they were unable to, thanks to Berwick promoter Peter Waite’s shrewd choice of guest to replace his injured Czech international, Adrian Rymel — ex-Islander Jason Doyle.
The Australian showed he had not forgotten the quickest way around the Smallbrook circuit, as he headed Berwick's scorechart with 16 points.
He received good support, too, from Czech Michal Makovsky, who weighed in with 16 points, and it was largely down to those two that the Islanders were unable to fully capitalise on the ten-point lead they had established by the sixth heat.
Their cause was not helped by bike problems for Cory Gathercole, as he was forced to ride on borrowed bikes.
However, the ever-reliable Bunyan scored 16 points and there was also a handy 13-point contribution from Kryzsztof Stojanowski, who won the man-of-the-match award, sponsored this week by George Jenkins Transport.
After the meeting, co-promoter Dave Pavitt said: “Naturally we’d have liked an even bigger advantage to take with us for the return but credit to Berwick, who made us battle for every single point.
“The main thing is that we go into Saturday’s match 11 points to the good and the pressure is very much on Peter Waite’s men to pull those points back.
“We’ll be heading north confident of defending our advantage and achieving our ambition of getting through to the Young Shield final.
“Islanders fans can rest assured that we’ll be fighting tooth and nail for every single point.”
Though the Islanders’ away form has been far worse than their home form, the Islanders can take heart from the fact that when the two sides met in the regular season, Berwick only beat them by two points.
Glen Phillips missed Tuesday’s match as he is still suffering from the effects of a leg injury and it is unlikely he will ride on Saturday, while Berwick are unlikely to have their veteran reserve Scott Smith available, also because of injury.