Berwick could lose their unaccustomed place on top of the Premier League following protests by Workington that their recent win over Workington will be set aside.
The Bandits beat Workington by 50 points to 40 at Shielfield. Due to Danish championship committments, they were without Tom Madsen and Claus Kristensen for the matches against Workington and Glasgow. Under the rules they were entitled to a guest for Kristensen and had to use rider replacement for Madsen. Berwick lined up Exeter's Mark Simmons, who had an average of 7.84 (below the 8.00 assessed average of Kristensen) for both matches.
Unknown to Berwick, the new Green Sheet averages came in that day for Exeter and Workington protested that Simmons with a new average of 8.63 was not eligible. By this time, Simmons had made the long trip from Cornwall. Berwick were put on the spot to find a sub-eight point rider at short notice. They ended up with Stewart McDonald for the Premier National Trophy match on Sunday and Ross Brady for the Workington match on Saturday.
Berwick duly won aginst Workington at Shielfield and followed this up with a surprise win at Derwent Park in the return.
The problem is that Ross Brady had appeared for Edinburgh at Shielfield the week before and was apparently not eligible as a guest under the eight day rule. However, the referee allowed Ross to ride on the grounds that his previous appearance was in the Premier National Trophy and not in the Premier League. Such distinctions have not been made in the past.
Workington were unhappy about this decision but agreed to ride under protest. Ross went in at number 5 and scored a match winning 11 points from five rides winning his first three heats. Ross was only beaten by Carl Stonehewer (twice) and Brent Werner plus team mate Scott Lamb.
Presumably Workington will continue their protest and argue that the 11 points gained by Ross should be discounted and the five heats he was involved in be recalculated. This would turn a 10 point home win into a 5 point away win.