REPORT: Cheetahs collect two points after exciting finish at Berwick

MONARCH Oxford Cheetahs picked up both the aggregate bonus point and a point for a 45-45 draw but lost out on a third point in a concluding Super Heat, as they consolidated their third place in the Cab Direct Championship at Berwick last night (Saturday).

In a back-and-forth affair, Cheetahs took the lead with a 5-1 from Sam Masters and Cameron Heeps in Heat 1, before Berwick levelled the scores in Heat 3. 

Cheetahs again moved ahead with a 5-1 from Scott Nicholls and Luke Killeen in Heat 6, after an impressive couple of opening bends from teenager Killeen to leave Danyon Hume and Lewis Kerr trailing.

But Bandits took three successive heat advantages between Heats 8 and 10 to move six points ahead.

Cheetahs’ team manager Peter Schroeck placed Nicholls into Heat 12 as a tactical substitute. There was movement at the tapes and both Lasse Fredriksen and Scott Nicholls nudged them. With the tapes not going up, Killeen then damaged his front mudguard on them as he too caught them.

It looked like Fredriksen had touched the tapes first, but it took referee Matthew Wear around ten minutes to arrive at that conclusion, with Fredriksen excluded and Nicholls warned. Meanwhile, Killeen also found himself excluded from the re-run for returning to the pits after the stoppage after a protest from Berwick team manager Stewart Dickson. The rule seems to allow contingency for ‘repairs of motorcycles’, and Killeen went to fix his mudguard, but the referee showed no leniency on this occasion. Eventually Nicholls won the race which ended 3-3.

Nicholls and Masters closed the gap with a 5-1 in Heat 13, as Masters fought back past Jye Etheridge in an early battle for second place.

Jordan Jenkins kept Cheetahs in the hunt with a vital second place in Heat 14 and Nicholls and Masters then forced the Super Heat with a 5-1 over the impressive Drew Kemp in Heat 15.

Both teams already had a point for the draw, while Cheetahs won the aggregate point by 98-82 and Nicholls (17) and Masters (12+2) dropped just a single point apiece from the 15 heats. But there was still a Super Heat to go, with an extra point at stake.

Oxford won the toss and not surprisingly placed Masters off gate 1 and Nicholls off gate 3, their positions in Heats 13 and 15, both of which had ended as a 5-1. But Nicholls missed the gate. He fought valiantly and pushed inside Kerr on the first corner of lap two and Kemp in the same place a lap later. But each time, the respective Bandit got back through. The Berwick pair combined to not allow Nicholls a route through again and Bandits won an exciting race by 5-4 under the 4-3-2-0 scoring system for the Super Heat.

Sam Masters said: “We’ve come away from home and taken two points, so we can’t really complain, but when you come this close to winning, it hurts a little bit, to be honest.

“This is a tough track to come to, even you’ve got the experience. So, for the younger riders in the team, this is a hard meeting. But every point we scored and fought for as a team tonight did count, because you do get a point for taking it to the Super Heat.

“Berwick are a good team at home, they always have been. But we’ve come here and taken two points away and once the dust settles, we’ll be happy with that.

“I had a good night. I dropped just the one point. When the meeting is so tight, you think about every dropped point. But if someone offered me paid 14 around here this morning, I would have taken it.

“In the Super Heat, I was looking every corner and every straight as to whether I could to help Scotty. But it’s a scary enough track as it is, without trying to slow the race down. I looked if there was something I could do, but you don’t want to be dangerous either.”

The next action at Oxford Stadium is next Wednesday (August 7) at 7.30pm, when the Monarch Oxford Cheetahs entertain the Plymouth Gladiators in the Cab Direct Championship. Tickets are already on sale at https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Berwick Bandits 45: Lewis Kerr 7+1, Danyon Hume 9, Jye Etheridge 6+1, Drew Kemp 15, Rory Schlein R/R, Freddy Hodder 2+1, Lasse Fredriksen 6+2.

Monarch Oxford Cheetahs 45: Sam Masters 12+2, Cameron Heeps 4+2, Ashton Boughen 1+1, Jordan Jenkins 6, Scott Nicholls 17, Luke Killeen 5+1, Jody Scott 0.

Super Heat result: Masters, Kemp, Kerr, Nicholls. Berwick win Super Heat by 5-4.

(Photo by Steve Edmunds)