Former Australian superbike champion Reid Battye arrives in Berwick to start his Bandits career
Rookie Reid Battye has touched down in his adopted home as the countdown towards the new speedway season continues.
The 24-year-old touched down in Britain on Saturday after managing to reroute his flight from New South Wales due to the disruption caused by the on-going Middle East war.
Now he is acclimatising to his new Berwick home, setting up his local workshop before taking his first laps around Shielfield Park at Press and Practice on Friday, March 27.
Seven days later the former Australian superbike champion will make his official debut at Armadale as the R.E.D Bandits, powered by STS, open their season at Edinburgh in the BSN Series.
Saturday, April 4, sees the Monarchs launch the 68th season of high octane racing action in the Borders and by then he will have been joined by Nick Morris and Jack Smith, who have also had to rearrange flights from Australia, fellow adopted Berwicker Jye Etheridge, Dane Peter Kildemand, Swede Victor Palovaara and Norwegian Lasse Fredricksen.
2026 also marks the 30th anniversary of the Bandits’ return to Shielfield Park having been served notice to quit by landlords Berwick Rangers near the end of the 1980 season.
Famously – after a year keeping the club alive by staging ‘home’ meetings at Barrow, Workington, Newcastle and Glasgow – they built a speedway stadium on farmland at Berrington Lough near Ancroft.
In their absence, Rangers hit hard times financially firstly selling the Shielfield Park freehold and then subsequently becoming sub-tenants of a greyhound operator as they lurched from one financial crisis to another, at one point even being locked out of the ground and forced to switch their fixtures.
But in 1996 a newly formed supporters’ trust regained the lease to Shielfield Park, with speedway once again become a major contributor to the football club’s income via rent.
Some shrewd winter signings mean that the Bandits are tipped by many to finally break a barren spell which has seen them just miss out on play-off qualification in recent seasons while failing to make progress in either the Knockout Cup or BSN Series.
Season passes – £199 adults, £189 concessions – are on sale from the club’s website berwickspeedway.com/store while the Bandits are continuing their popular scheme which sees under-16s admitted free when accompanied by an adult.
Kildemand was the first Bandit to taste track action as he competed in fellow Dane Nikolai Klindt’s testimonial meeting at King’s Lynn on Sunday and the prestigious Peter Craven Memorial meeting at Belle Vue, his Premiership base in 2026.
Kildemand and Morris – who along with Etheridge will also ride for Sheffield in Britain’s top league this season – are also involved in the BEN Fund charity meeting at Glasgow on March 28.