Plenty of pride in excellent home result for Berwick Bandits despite losing semi-final on aggregate
It was a case of so near, yet so far for the Berwick Bandits as they saw their hopes of a second cup final in 2026 dashed by the Redcar Bears despite winning 55-34 on the night.
The Bandits truly put the Bears to the sword on the evening, but having left themselves with a mountain to climb from the first leg they missed out narrowly in the end – 92-86 on aggregate.
The evening got off to the ideal start for the Bandits as Jye Etheridge rocketed from the start only for Charles Wright to squeeze by him on the back straight and Peter Kildemand to pass the pair of them through a gap that simply was not there for an opening heat 4-2.
That was negated in heat two when Shielfield Park specialist Simon Lambert held on to win despite the close attention of the spectacular Reid Battye.
Heat three provided what many fans may point to as the turning point in the tie as a back to form Victor Palovaara and Jordan Jenkins did everything right to get the better of the Bears middle order pairing Jody Scott and Jake Allen, looking set fair for a maximum heat advantage before Jenkins’ slowing bike gave up the ghost, gifting Redcar a 3-3 which proved to be vital in the final analysis.
As he so often has this season, Jye Etheridge provided the catalyst for a Bandits fightback, firstly linking up for a 5-1 with Peter Kildemand in heat six, a rare 5-0 alongside Reid Battye in heat and another win in heat 10 to give the Bandits a glimmer of hope of progressing to the final.
Heading into heat 12 the simple maths was that the Bandits needed four maximum heat advantages from the remaining heats in order to force a super heat but that all went up in smoke when Battye picked up some unwanted drive when comfortably in second place behind Palovaara, resulting in Simon Lambert picking his pocket along the back straight to split the Bandits duo.
The Bandits would round off the night in some style with Jordan Jenkins turning his night around to pick up his second win of the night in heat 14, sandwiched in-between two sublime Peter Kildemand wins in heats 13 and 15.