Jakobsen injury scare after Eagles’ pile-up

BERWICK BANDITS 58EASTBOURNE EAGLES 32Berwick bounced back to winning ways with a 26-point victory over Eastbourne Eagles at Shielfield on Saturday.

But the victory was hard-fought, and may have been earned at a cost, with Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen left nursing a shoulder injury after a dramatic heat 15 accident in which all four riders were involved.

Eastbourne’s Richard Lawson lifted coming off the second bend, and the three other riders all bunched up behind him, and at high speed cartwheeled onto the centre green.

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Jakobsen, Jye Etheridge and Nick Morris were all unable to take part in the re-run and Lawson was excluded as the primary cause.

It was the climax of a meeting Berwick had led throughout and whilst they were relieved to get the points in their bid to escape the bottom of the Championship table, manager Gary Flint later admitted that they will have to monitor Jakobsen’s shoulder injury over the course of the week.

Morris, a former Bandit and a league Riders’ Champion with the club, had been drafted in as a replacement for another ex-Berwick rider, Edward Kennett, who was facing a ban. He won three of his races and fell in two of his other three races, finishing the evening as the visitors’ top scorer with 11 points.

For Berwick it was a solid performance throughout with all seven Bandits contributing. In all, they had 11 of the 15 race winners, with reserve Coty Garcia taking three chequered flags.

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There wasn’t a lot between the sides in the early stages, but gradually Berwick pulled away in the second half of the meeting.

Berwick: Garcia 10+1, Doolan 10+1, Flint 9+3, Jakobsen 9+1, Summers 8+1, Etheridge 7, Gappmaier 5+1.

Eastbourne: Morris 11, Lawson 7, Kerr 6, Newman 5+1, Edwards 3, Bowtell 0, Wood 0.

This weekend Berwick are back in action with three meetings in the space of four days.

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Last night (Wednesday) they were home to Scunthorpe in a re-arranged Championship fixture. Tomorrow (Friday) they are at Redcar and on Saturday they are at home to Birmingham.

Jakobsen’s shoulder injury will need to be assessed before it is confirmed whether or not he will be able to race .