|
|
| |
| |  | BIRMINGHAM took champions Sheffield to another last heat decider at Perry Barr on Monday, but narrowly missed out 47-43.
For the second time this season in the Second City , the Curtis Sport Brummies and the South Yorkshire side took their tussle right down to the wire.
But the hosts were denied the 5-1 they required and ultimately slipped to their seventh straight loss.
It was a much more spirited display from the Brummies though who got off to the dream start when Freddie Lindgren and debutant Michael Palm Toft opened with a maximum over current World No.2 Jack Holder.
But they couldn’t build on it in Heat Two when guest reserve Paco Castagna was drawn into the tapes by movement off the inside from Sheffield’s Jason Edwards - Edwards won the re-run in a 4-2 to the visitors with the Italian unable to make an impact from a 15-metre handicap.
Following initial tension on the start line, Heat Three was completed at the third time of asking with Wiktor Lampart making a strong start as he and returning guest Zach Cook got a 4-2 of their own.
Sheffield’s guest Max Fricke led two 4-2s in Heats Four and Six though and with Lampart making it two out of two leading a shared race in the fifth, the scores were back level at 18 points apiece.
Four of the next five races were also shared with a 5-1 to the visitors in Heat Eight putting them ahead for the first time when their skipper Kyle Howarth squeezed Leon Flint up to the home straight fence to take second.
Heat 12 felt like a turning point in the fixture; the visitors were four ahead, but that advantage was doubled when Lampart went from first to third over the course of the last lap.
Lindgren rode smartly to take the chequered flag in Heat 13 before teaming up for a 5-1 alongside Cook in Heat 14 as a tactical substitute to take it to the last heat decider.
And whilst Cook made a spectacular start to race to a third straight win, Lindgren was kept at bay by Fricke and Jack Holder as the champions sealed victory at the death.
The Brummies are back at Perry Barr next Monday (July 29, 7.30pm) when they face Belle Vue - one of the two sides they have managed to beat in this year’s ROWE Motor Oil Premiership to date!
BIRMINGHAM 43: Fredrik Lindgren 13+1, Zach Cook 10, Wiktor Lampart 7, Tom Brennan 5+1, Michael Palm Toft 3+1, Paco Castagna 3+1, Leon Flint 2.
SHEFFIELD 47: Max Fricke 12, Jack Holder 8+2, Jason Edwards 7+2, Chris Holder 7+1, Josh Pickering 5, Dan Gilkes 5, Kyle Howarth 3+2.
| Share This: |
 |
 |
| |
| | | | |
