Birmingham draw on inside knowledge

Jul 19 2008 by Lawrence Heppell, The Journal

BIRMINGHAM provide Premier League opposition for both Newcastle Diamonds and Berwick Bandits this weekend.

The Brummies, after a good number of inactive years, are back in action for their second successive season ably led by experienced promoters Graham Drury and Tony Mole and race at Berwick tonight (7pm), before visiting Newcastle tomorrow (5.30pm).

In their first season back they really hit the heights with a magnificent season at the New Perry Barr track although after missing a few vital league matches suffered something of a ridiculous indignity. Having effectively finished second in the final League Table, as they hadn’t got the matches ridden before the Young Shield cut-off date they were lumped in that competition instead of the league title play-offs.

And so to 2008, a season that is not providing such great scores for the Brummies, but as they’ve recently emerged from a fearsome batch of injuries it’s perhaps not surprising.

They are led by the highly experienced Australian and ex-Newcastle Diamond Jason Lyons who has, as ever, been topping their score charts with some fearsome scores. And he’s been getting good back-up from Canadian star Kyle Legault.

Birmingham also have James Birkinshaw in their squad who used to race for both Berwick and Newcastle with varied success, but will possess valuable information on how to race both tracks. They also boast a rider whom both the Bandits and Diamonds have looked at as a potential signing, Craig Watson. He can score double figures with ease at any venue.

Berwick expect to be at full strength with their two World Cup riders back from their exploits. Norbert Magosi was in action for Hungary in Poland last Saturday, while Adrian Rymel top scored for the Czech Republic at Coventry on Monday against the world’s best from Great Britain, Sweden and Denmark.

Newcastle too should be at full strength with a much better performance being anticipated from both Czechs, Josef Franc and George Stancl, who failed to impress last week in the Diamonds’ narrow victory over Berwick.

WEEKEND LINE-UPS

BERWICK BANDITS: 1 Adrian Rymel (captain), 2 Norbert Magosi, 3 Michal Makovsky, 4 Tero Aarnio, 5 Tony Atkin, 6 Paul Clews, 7 Scott Smith.

NEWCASTLE DIAMONDS: 1 Josef Franc, 2 Richard Juul (captain), 3 George Stancl, 4 Jason King, 5 Christian Henry, 6 Jerran Hart, 7 Sean Stoddart.

BIRMINGHAM BRUMMIES: 1 Kyle Legault, 2 Jack Hargreaves, 3 Jason Lyons (captain), 4 Lee Smart, 5 Craig Watson, 6 Jack Roberts, 7 James Birkinshaw.