Comfortably through to the next round

We hoped after Friday's good performance that there would be no scares in the second leg of the KO Cup quarter final, and so it proved as we took control in the early stages at Shielfield and really were never in danger.

Alex Harkess said "We did what we came to do which was qualify, and we avoided any stress by doing well in the early stages of the match. It was a nice evening but I don't think there was a lot of excitement for the crowd."

The final score was a 48-42 home win for Berwick leaving the Staggs Bar Monarchs as winners on aggregate by 99 – 81.

The most notable thing about tonight's match was its almost total uneventfulness. The riders were no doubt working hard, but there wasn't the slightest hint of an overtake after the second bend, and each race was simply a case of waiting for time to pass as the riders completed the four laps.

The first five heats virtually ensured that we would go through as we added six points to our first leg advantage. Ricky Wells was once again in imperious form and won heats 1 and 5, and to our great pleasure new boy Victor Palovaara backed him up both times for two 5-1s. Add in that Joel Andersson won heat 2, Erik Riss won heat 4 and Mark Riss took second place in heat 3.

Thereafter with qualification being the main goal of the weekend, we let things slip away a bit and lost 5-1s in heats 6, 8, 12 and 14 before Ricky and Erik took a maximum very easily out of heat 15. Erik had had one third place off the unproductive gate 1, and Ricky's only blemish was an engine failure due to damaging clutch plates in heat 13. In fact this was his third set damaged during the evening.

While we were pleased to go through without any heart failure, we can't be completely happy with the fact that we almost cornered the market in last places against the solid Bandits, taking 12 of them during the evening (Max Ruml had four in another disappointing away match for him).

Mark Riss fell three times during the evening, including an awkward one when holding third place in heat 10. He was a bit battered but should be OK for tomorrow's Fours at Redcar.

Hard work needed on Saturday night

A great night's speedway at Armadale has given the Stagg's Bar Monarchs a fighting chance of reaching the Knockout Cup semi-finals – but there is still a lot of work to do.

The team and everyone around them realise this, and that Berwick's home record deserves respect. Every one of the Bandits is a Shielfield specialist.

To be successful there we will have to gate well, indeed gate better than we did in the first leg. At Armadale we were able to peg back the opposition either round the first turn or later in the race but that is much harder at Shielfield. And no tentative entries to that third bend!

Clearly we are looking to our top two of Ricky Wells and Erik Riss for the foundation of the score, and to the others to grab as many as they can to ensure that our total exceeds 33 (and gets there as early as possible to take the pressure off!)

Certainly the spirit in the camp seems excellent and the boys know what is needed. We know for example that Dany Gappmaier who played little part last night is generally a double figure man round Shielfield, and that all the others are potential race winner.

Hopefully we will have a good travelling support down to cheer the team on.