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Newcastle Diamonds v Berwick Bandits
Young Shield (QF), 25 September 2005
Brough Park Stadium, Newcastle

Newcastle 48
1Josef Franc2332*2* ..122
2Kristian Lund0021. ..30
3Lubos Tomicek3221*. ..81
4Phil Morris11*1*3. ..62
5James Grieves33233 ..140
6Jamie Birkinshaw100.. ..10
7Jamie RobertsonFx11*20 ..41
Berwick 42
1(g)Paul Thorp33310 ..100
2Carl Wilkinson10031 ..50
4Adam Pietraszko22032 1.100
5Michal Makovsky21*00. ..31
6Chris Schramm321*32 01*122
7Scott Smith2*00.. ..21

* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).

Newcastle were back at full strength for this second leg tie while Berwick again had Paul Thorp at number 1 for Adrian Rymel and used R/R for Tom P Madsen. Berwick had a 25 point lead from the first leg of this tie raced the previous evening.

There was never really much prospect of Newcastle pulling back the 25 point deficit incurred in the first leg at Berwick. In fact it took a last heat 5-1 for the Diamonds to seal a win on the night as they trailed the Bandits for most of the match.

Newcastle struggled from the start as the Bandits started with a 2-4 in heat one won by Paul Thorp and a 1-5 in heat 2 from Chris Schramm and Scott Smith. Newcastle then pulled back with 4-2s in heats 3 and 4 with wins from Lubos Tomicek and James Grieves to make the score after the opening four heats 11-13.

The Diamonds just could not get on level terms as the next five heats were shared with wins for Josef Franc and James Grieves for the home side and from Paul Thorp, Carl Wilkinson and Chris Schramm for the Bandits which took the score after nine heats to 26-28.

At last the Diamonds did it with a 4-2 in heat 10 from Josef Franc and Kristian Lund who kept Adam Pietraszko at the back to level the scores at 30-30. Their joy didn’t last long as Paul Thorp got the drop on James Grieves in heat 11 to end Grieves’ winning run and take a 2-4 with Wilkinson beating Birkinshaw for third place to put Berwick two points in front again. Pietraszko gated to win heat 12 but Robertson then Tomicek passed Schramm to share the heat and the score was 35-37.

However in heat 13 Thorp made a poor start and Grieves and Franc team rode to the 5-1 with Thorp in third place to put the Diamonds in front for the first time. In heat 14 Phil Morris who looked far from well came from the back to win the heat for a shared race and Newcastle still had a two point lead going into the last race. Although Pietraszko was fast away in heat 15 Josef Franc on the inside and James Grieves on the outside both passed him for a 5-1 with Thorp stuck at the back and Newcastle had the satisfaction of winning the second leg and Berwick the satisfaction of being through to the semi-finals.

Match Report by Merlin