WORKINGTON Comets and Berwick Bandits battled out two remarkable drawn meetings in the Championship Shield over the weekend.

It finished 45-45 at Derwent Park on Friday and 24 hours later when they tangled at Shielfield it finished the same score.

In the home leg Workington had needed a 4-2 in the final race to force a draw while at Berwick they had grabbed a 4-2 in heat twelve to go level before three shared heats meant the sides could not be separated.

The Comets had found themselves eight points down in the early stages at Derwent Park, before a flying Nicolai Klindt took a tactical substitute ride to help them back into the meeting.

The scores were finally levelled with two heats to go before the Bandits edged back ahead 43-41 – but a 4-2 from Ty Proctor and Klindt ensured a shared result.

Klindt racked up 18 from seven rides for the hosts with Proctor adding 11+1, whilst Dany Gappmaier (11) and Kevin Doolan (10+2) scored double figures for the Bandits.

Comets manager Tony Jackson said: “Having fought back from an eight-point deficit to take the draw certainly made us the happier of the two sides, and fair play to our lads for dragging themselves back into the match when, to be honest, we looked dead and buried at one stage.

“I am sure that with it being only our third home meeting of the season and our first for three weeks was a contributory factor as we simply were not getting out of the starts at all.

“We left ourselves with far too much to do race after race and had a couple of bits of misfortune that cost us points in the match.

“For a brief moment in heat 15 we looked as if we were in a winning position before Kevin Doolan showed his experience to fight back into second place to seal the draw.

“But a special mention must go to Nicolai, who was outstanding and showed his class by racing to an 18-point haul from seven rides to keep us in the match.”

Klindt missed the return match as he was away on SEC Challenge duty but Rene Bach was back from Danish obligations.

Comets’ hero for the trip to Shielfield was Australian Ty Proctor who only had his first outing for the season at Derwent Park the night before.

He missed out on the points in his first outing, but then reeled off four wins and a second and was the rider who stormed home in he final heat to ensure Comets drew the match.

Recent signing Bradley Wilson-Dean injured his knee in a clash with Jye Etheridge on Friday and was unable to do the follow-up meeting so former Comet Ashley Morris stepped-in at short notice. He produced an eye-catching performance which included two wins in his nine-point haul.

Team boss Jackson added: “Dropping points at home was not in the plan, so we were looking to make up for that in the return which we did.”

Workington v Berwick

Workington Comets 45 - 1, Rider replacement for Rene Bach; 2, Rasmus Jensen 6; 3, Ty Proctor 11; 4, Dan Bewley 5; 5, Nicolai Klindt 18; 6, Kyle Bickley 1; 7, Bradley Wilson-Dean 4.

Berwick Bandits 45 1, Aaron Summers 8; 2. Kevin Doolan 8; 3, David Howe 2; 4. Danny Gappmaier 13; 5, Nicolaj B. Jakobsen 5; 6, John Lindman 2; 7, Jye Etheridge 7.

Heat by heat

Heat 1: Klindt, Summers, Doolan, Jensen. 3-3Heat 2: Etheridge, Lindman, Bickley, Wilson-Dean (Retired) (1-5), 4-8Heat 3: Gappmaier, Bewley, Proctor, Howe. (3-3). 7-11Heat 4: Klindt, Jakobsen, Etheridge, Wilson-Dean. (3-3), 10-14

Heat 5: Summers, Doolan, Proctor, Bewley (Retired). (1-5), 11-19Heat 6: Klindt, Jensen, Jakobsen, Lindman. (5-1), 16-20Heat 7: Gappmaier, Klindt, Howe, Bickley. (2-4) 18-24

Heat 8: Doolan, Wilson-Dean, Etheridge, Jensen (Retired). (2-4), 20-28.

Heat 9: Proctor, Jakobsen, Bewley, Lindman (Fell). (4-2), 24-30Heat 10: Jensen, Gappmaier, Howe, Proctor. (3-3), 27-33Heat 11: Klindt, Doolan, Summers, Bickley. (3-3), 30-36

Heat 12: Proctor, Wilson-Dean, Etheridge, Howe. (5-1), 35-37Heat 13: Klindt, Summers, Jensen, Jakobsen. (4-2), 39-39

Heat 14: Gappmaier, Bewley, Etheridge, Wilson-Dean (Excluded). (2-4), 41-43

Heat 15: Proctor, Gappmaier, Klindt, Doolan. (4-2), 45-45

Berwick v Workington

Berwick Bandits 45: 1, Aaron Summers 8; 2, Kevin Doolan 6; 3, David Howe 6; 4, Danny Gappmaier 12; 5, Nicolaj B. Jakobsen 3; 6, John Lindman 2; 7, Jye Etheridge 8.

Workington Comets 45: 1, Rene Bach 7; 2, Rasmus Jensen 8; 3, Ty Proctor 14; 4, Dan Bewley 7; Rider replacement for 5, Nicolai Klindt; 6, Ashley Morris 9; 7, Kyle Bickley 0