Battered Battye brings Bandits back from brink

R.E.D Bandits, powered by STS      47

Poole Pirates        43

Three heats which defined – possibly even saved – the season. An incredible fightback when all seemed lost.

Three 5-1s which overturned a seemingly  insurmountable eight point deficit with four races to go, rescuing a 100 per cent home record apparently ended by a Poole side which had cleverly replaced its Shielfield duds with unbeatable super guests.

But when all seemed lost the 2026 Bandits and their own local hero of choice stepped up to the plate and – with the assistance of a rash teenager and an unfathomable piece of tactical incompetence – reignited the play-off flame.

It’s still a big ask – basically Berwick have to win all three of their remaining fixtures – but defeat would have made it impossible and that would have been tough especially on Nick Morris who for much of the night looked like the only Bandit capable of taking points off guests Sam Masters and Edward Kennett.

They each won their opening four rides and when Cooper Rushen and Kennett’s strolled to a 5-1 in heat 12 moving the lead to 32-40 it looked like game over. In many ways the heat summed up much of the night, Victor Palovaara gating, Reid Battye briefly challenging but the Pirates taking the spoils with relative ease.

Even when Leon Flint shot from the gate and Morris passed Masters to join his team-mate in heat 13 it still looked like a forlorn hope as the home side prepared to face the unbeaten Kennett in the penultimate heat.

Only it wasn’t. The Poole rider pulling up to the tapes for heat 14 was Sam Hagon – two points from three rides up to that point – rather than Kennett, 12 points from four. Pirates team manager Gary Havelock justified it by claiming that Kennett was “done” and would only ride in 15 if he was kept out of 14. Hobson’s choice perhaps but Havelock could have chosen to lock down the win early but initially he did look to have got away with his blunder as Hagon and Rushen hit the front.

Battye, as he had been all night, was determined to take the battle to the visitors and traded places twice with Rushen before his race ended spectacularly. 16-year-old Rushen – who had been the centre of controversy involving Jye Etheridge in the earlier cup semi-final – rode right through Battye at full speed coming off the fourth turn sending the Aussie cartwheeling down the home straight.

It was a wild and dangerous move – although post-match Havelock claimed that his rider had been hard done to by referee Willie Dishington – but, once Battye was back on his feet and walking back to the pits, the whole complexion of the match had been turned on its head by the illuminated yellow exclusion light.

Battye is already a hero among the Shielfield Park faithful and rising from a spectacular crash and then following Jordan Jenkins home in the rerun to level the scores added another level to his growing legend.

The atmosphere in the stadium was electric but as day turned to night Havelock had one more move up his sleeve. Problems in accessing the home straight floodlights allowed the former World Champion an opportunity to claim that conditions were too dangerous, that it was pitch black and the meeting should be abandoned as a draw.

Fortunately his protestations were interrupted by Dishington putting on the two-minute warning and calling the riders forward.

What was already a spine-tingling atmosphere ratchetted up a notch when – clearly visible – Flint made a lightning start and was almost off the charts after Morris again powered his way past Masters to the front to seal the victory and spark wild celebrations.

Celebrations which seem to have got up the nose of the charmless Havelock who raged over Rushen’s exclusion, the floodlights and just about everything else post-match. All decent attempts to deflect from his tactical shortcomings.

Unlike most of their hot 2026 home streak the Bandits had struggled to impose themselves on the early heats, Poole taking the lead in heat two and regularly kicking ahead as Masters and Kennett took possession of the chequered flag: winning five of the opening seen heats between them

Morris, who would end the evening having dropped only one point to an opponent in 12 starts, was the only Bandit capable of going toe-to-toe with the visiting big guns and he won the other two.

For the first time this season skipper Jye Etheridge had a night he’ll want to forget while the Palovaara/Jenkins pairing was again inconsistent, conceding the heat nine 5-1 to Lewis Kerr and Kennett which opened up a six point lead.

Home team manager Stewart Dickson wasted no time in playing his tactical substitute card but even so it took a brave, brave second bend by Flint to round Kerr and join Morris for the maximum.

But immediately Masters became the first visiting rider to head Morris home and a four-point deficit became eight when Rushen and Kennett romped home in heat 12.

It seemed like it was time to accept that all good things must come to an end and, no matter how difficult it is to like the graceless Pirates, that this was not to be the year for either an impeccable home record or a place in the play-offs.

Grit, determination, resilience decided otherwise leaving the Pirates to head south defeated for the second time in a season – seemingly an unthinkable scenario which pricked some Poole egos.

Bandits: Leon Flint 10+3, Jye Etheridge 2, Victor Palovaara 4+1, Jordan Jenkins 6+1q, Nick Morris 16+1, Vinnie Foord 1, Reid Battye 8+1

Pirates: Sam Masters 14, Will Cairns 4, R/R Zach Cook, Cooper Rushen 4+1, Lewis Kerr 6+1, Edward Kennett 12, Sam Hagon 3

Pictures: Keith Hamblin