BRUMMIES WINNERS AT LAST!

BIRMINGHAM pulled off their first win of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership season at the eighth attempt with a surprise 45-44 victory at Leicester.

The Brummies went six points ahead in the first three races and repelled every Lions attempt to fight back, with second-string Paco Castagna (11) and reserve Jonas Jeppesen (10+1) both in great form.

Home duo Max Fricke (14) and Sam Masters (11+2) combined for 5-1s in Heats 13 and 15, but a vital maximum from Jeppesen and Keynan Rew in Heat 14 meant the Brummies only needed to provide a finisher from the last race.

The result finally gets the Perry Barr side off the mark, whilst Leicester took the aggregate point and remain fourth in the table with a six-point cushion over Oxford.

Brummies boss Chris Adams said: “It does feel good – but it’s only one. But you do look at the league table at the minute and you can already see teams drifting away from that bottom spot.

“And this was one of the teams (Leicester) that if you are going to do anything and catch them, then these are them.

“So to take some points off these, I’m happy with that. They all did their bit from the word go, they were all scoring points in each race in that first block and I think that makes a difference.”

Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “They got ahead early and it gave them something to fight for, but I felt we had opportunities to get back into it.

“To get maximums in Heats 13 and 15 and still come up short is for me a little disappointing, but I can’t question the effort of the guys.

“Birmingham deserved to win, and I shook their hands and said well done – it does come as a bit of a shock when it’s not expected, but we need to dust ourselves down and get on with it.”

Watch the action from Heat 2 (courtesy of CLEAN CUT SPORTS)

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Photo credit: STEVE DIXON