Birmingham Brummies v Edinburgh Monarchs

Report

EDINBURGH gave their season a major boost with a thumping 54-36 away win at Birmingham in the Cab Direct Championship.

The Monarchs put on a dominant display at Perry Barr, led by stand-in skipper Craig Cook with 14 points from five rides.

Paco Castagna added 10+1 on his old home track as the visitors provided all but four of the race wins – three of them coming from Brummies No.1 Nick Morris, who scored 13 as the hosts failed to build on their win at Plymouth one night earlier.

Monarchs boss John Campbell said: “Very pleased with the excellent display. There was good scoring throughout showing what we can do.

“Rory (Schlein) was a great guest and Craig lead the team brilliantly. We now look forward to pushing on from this performance.”

Birmingham boss Laurence Rogers said: “It’s very disappointing. We were on such a high after Plymouth but it just didn’t happen for us tonight.

“We just weren’t firing tonight and we didn’t ride how we know we can ride.”

CAB DIRECT CHAMPIONSHIP
BIRMINGHAM 36: Nick Morris 13, Alfie Bowtell 7+1, Justin Sedgmen 6+1, James Wright 4+1, James Pearson 4+1, Joe Thompson 2, Stefan Nielsen r/r
EDINBURGH 54: Craig Cook 14, Paco Castagna 10+1, Rory Schlein 8+2, Jacob Hook 8+2, Lasse Fredriksen 7+1, Kye Thomson 7, Kyle Bickley 0

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Photo credit: PAUL ROSE