Berwick Bandits skipper Danyon Hume taken to hospital after horrific crash in win against Edinburgh Monarchs

Joint top scorer Danyon Hume crashed heavily and was later confirmed to have fractured two vertebrae in his back. The hugely popular skipper is currently in the Northumbria Specialist Care Hospital in Cramlington where a decision has yet to be made on whether the injury requires surgery.

Hume – who had helped the Bandits open up an early 10-point lead by twice joining Drew Kemp for 5-1s – was the innocent victim in one of the worst crashes in Shielfield Park’s long speedway history.

Edinburgh, whose riders had earlier been all at sea on a track made tricky by heavy afternoon rain, had fought back to level the scores going into heat 12.

They had been helped by a series of setbacks for the home side including a tapes exclusion for Peter Kildemand in heat seven.

One Monarchs rider untroubled by the conditions was Jonatan Grahn, the Dane winning his opening two rides on his first visit to the Borders circuit and teaming up with Kye Thomsen for the 5-1 which levelled the scores after eight.

It was still all square four heats later and looked set to stay that way as home reserve Jack Smith had shot from the gate and ridden the best four laps of his brief Berwick career to stay in front of Grahn and Justin Sedgmen.

Hume was pressing hard for third place but the race seemed destined for a 3-3 as the riders came off the final bend only for Grahn to hit the safety fence hard, rider and machine thrown back across the track into the path of Hume.

He managed to avoid the stricken Dane but not his bike and was thrown high into the air, landing down the home straight with his own bike cartwheeling and landing on the Berwick rider.

Track paramedics spent 40 minutes treating Hume trackside and Berwick’s 9.30pm racing curfew kicked in, with referee Chris Gay declaring the result.

Hume was alert throughout and his partner confirmed on Sunday that the point awarded to him by the referee as the innocent victim of the crash still made him a match-winner!

Berwick were without Hume and Craig Cook, missing due to an on-going illness, at Oxford last night and the management will have some decisions to make before Berwick’s next scheduled meeting against Plymouth on July 19.