Berwick Bandits
| Berwick Bandits | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Club information | |||||||||||||||||||
| Track address |
Shielfield Park Tweedmouth Berwick-On-Tweed |
||||||||||||||||||
| Country | England | ||||||||||||||||||
| Founded | 1968 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Team manager | Scott Courtney | ||||||||||||||||||
| Team captain | Kevin Doolan | ||||||||||||||||||
| League | SGB Championship | ||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www |
||||||||||||||||||
| Club facts | |||||||||||||||||||
| Colours | Black and Gold | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track size | 368 metres (402 yd) | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record time | 62.8 seconds | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record date | 15th August 2015 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Track record holder | Craig Cook | ||||||||||||||||||
| Current team | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Major team honours | |||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
The Berwick Bandits are a speedway team based at Shielfield Park, Berwick upon Tweed, the club competes in the British SGB Championship.
Berwick have been operational in consecutive seasons from 1968 through to the present day. For such a small club, Berwick have had relative success. They were Division 2 Knock-out cup winners in 1980 and 1989, and The Gold Cup, in their only top flight season in 1991 whilst owned by Entrepreneur Terry Lindon. To add to this there were two national league riders championships for Wayne Brown (1980) and Steve McDerrmott (1983).
In 1980 Berwick left Shielfield Park after a disagreement with the landlords Berwick Rangers FC They raced their remaining fixtures as 'Nomads' including racing the second leg of the KO cup final at Brough Park Newcastle.
In 1981 the Bandits were still homeless and carried on riding home fixtures at Barrow, Workington and Glasgow before being forced to quit NL racing after a protest from Edinburgh boss Mike Parker. The Bandits were, however, allowed to defend their KO cup reaching the final against Edinburgh which the Monarchs won
Between 1982 and 1995, Berwick Bandits were based at the Berrington Lough track near Ancroft, Northumberland.
On 9 July 1995 Bikes returned to Shielfield Park for the first time in 15 years so that council officials could carry out noise tests. On 17 August 1996 The Bandits returned to Shielfield Park for their second spell at the Tweedmouth track
Berwick won the Premier League Four-Team Championship in 2002. In 2005, Berwick enjoyed one of their most successful seasons ever; they were 2nd in the Premier League, semi-finalists of the Knock-out cup, semi-finalists of the Young Shield and had a series of impressive away wins. The highlight being the 53-38 away win over the Exeter Falcons. In 2008 the Bandits made the final of the Young Shield, losing out to Workington Comets in what turned out to be promoter Peter Waite's last meeting in charge. For season 2009 the new promotion is spearheaded by longtime supporter and North Berwick butcher John Anderson, with popular Cornhill shopkeeper Linda Waite (no relation to Peter) joining John and his sons. On 26 July 2010 the Berwick promotion announced that there had been a change in ownership. Lynda Waite had stepped down from her role to concentrate on the family business at Cornhill village shop, she states she enjoyed every minute of her time at Berwick Speedway and will never forget it and will be proud to sponsor the 2010 Bordernapolis event so that her link with Berwick speedway would continue. After Lynda's departure, John Anderson then announced the new investor was George Hepburn, owner of Berwick building contractor George Hepburn and Son Ltd., a long term supporter of the Bandits and sponsor of rider Lee Complin. Following the announcement of George Hepburn's investment, it was then announced that Dave Peet (team manager, late 2008 - Mid 2010) had departed from the club and had been replaced by the track curator and staff manager Ian Rae. Rae’s association with speedway in Berwick-upon-Tweed extend back to his role as Stadium Manager at their Berrington Lough Stadium, followed by several years – up until 2001 – as team manager.
...
Wikipedia