STARS DO THE DOUBLE
KING’S Lynn completed a quickfire double over bottom club Birmingham with a comfortable 53-37 win in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership at the Adrian Flux Arena.
The PSH Environmental Stars had been taken to a last-heat decider at Perry Barr 72 hours earlier, but back on home shale they had the points in the bag long before that stage.
The Brummies kept things close after seven races when they were just two points down, aided by mechanical failures for home duo Ben Cook and Chris Harris, but a run of Stars advantages followed as they stretched clear.
Richard Lawson (12) was only denied a maximum by a breakdown at the start of Heat 15, whilst Jan Kvech scored 11 from four rides. Keynan Rew (11) and Matej Zagar (10+1) reached double figures for the Brummies, but their only support came from a strong show from Rising Star Sam Hagon with 8+1.
Stars boss Rob Lyon said: “We were a little tentative in a few heats and we also had a bit of bad luck with Bomber’s (Harris) engine going, Richard on the line in Heat 15 and also Ben in Heat 2.
“That bad luck kept Birmingham in the match a little bit, but I always felt comfortable enough to win the meeting and it was a reasonably solid performance.
“We did what we needed to do, and it was good for the confidence. It was good for Ben to get some track time, and for Richard that’s just the way it goes – Heat 15 was a shame because he was spot-on tonight, but you can’t do anything about it unfortunately.”
Birmingham manager Chris Adams said: “We tried our best with a patched-up team, and it’s just a shame because we’ve been turning up to all these meetings and we’ve never had seven riders all firing on the same day.
“It’s always two or three here and two or three there, and you’re always going to find it hard when they’re not all firing.
“Sam really seems to like these bigger tracks. He thoroughly deserved Heat 15, he did his best in that and got the result with us getting a heat advantage.”
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Photo credit: DEREK LEADER
