A battling performance by Arena on Saturday at Berwick saw them nearly pull off a shock win against a side that currently enjoy second place in the Premier League.

That the Hammers failed to procure the match points was down to mechanical misfortune that saw Leigh Lanham denied a race win when his bike packed up as he was leading heat five while Roger Lobb was dogged by coil problems to his machine which forced him to miss his first two rides.

Colin White was also hindered by bike problems being forced onto his second bike after his first choice packed up.

Scott Lamb took the first of his five race wins on the way to a five ride maximum when he eased to the front in the opening race ahead of Lanham as the home side opened with a 4-2 heat advantage.

Three shared heats ensued with Matt Read and Gary Corbett thwarting Phil Pickering before guest Mark Burrows grabbed the first of his three race wins.

Colin White forced his way past Dean Felton in the next which left the visitors trailing 13-11 after the first four heats.

Set to level the scores in the next with Lanham leading comfortably and Wainwright in third, there was a dramatic setback for Arena when Lanham's bike packed up allowing David Meldrum to head affairs before Tom Madsen ploughed into John Wainwright along the back straight.

The race was awarded as a 3-2 with Lanham, not under power, and Madsen both excluded.

Burrows twice teamed up with his colleagues for the night to collect 4-2 heat advantages and on both occasions the efforts saw Arena haul the home side's advantage reduced to just one point.

He shot ahead of Claus Kristenson around the first turn in heat seven as Matt Read beat Phil Pickering for third place to leave Arena trailing 21-20 but two successive wins for David Meldrum and then a heat 10 success for Lamb gave the home side a five point lead.

Arena collected back to back 4-2's as Lanham raced past Kristenson in heat 11 with Wainwright in third.

Burrows then shrugged off Madsen in heat 12 with Gary Corbett holding off Dean Felton for a point to reduce the Bandits to one point at 36-35.

Lanham and White combined for the minor places behind Lamb in the next and Arena had all to play for with two races left. Read and Lobb though were outgated by Meldrum and Felton who duly collected a heat maximum that guaranteed the win on the night with the score now 44-39.

Meldrum appeared in the nominated riders race, heat 15, but although Lamb beat the Hammers duo away from the gate to complete a five ride maximum, Burrows and White squeezed out Meldrum to round off a keenly contested performance on the night by the visitors.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.