MATCH REPORT: Birmingham secure another second place
The Birmingham Monarchs Cycle Speedway club finished runners up in the second round of the Spring Cup in East Park on Sunday, this follows up an opening round second place last week.
Again, it was the Wednesfield club who took victory, however this time they completely dominated the meeting, taking 7 maximum heat advantages to total 75 of a possible 84.
Birmingham were pretty comfortable in 2nd place to score 57 in total, although the Wednesfield B club finished strongly to finish one point behind on 56. The home club again finished in 4th place on 28.
Scott Millward won his opening race in heat 2, whilst Johnson/Evans took an unexpected maximum in heat 3. Both Aces B riders fell together on the second bend, which allowed Evans the chance to pass and took the chequered flag for the win, in this his first meeting back in the sport after several years out of action – a dream debut!
Photos by 57 Studio
Evans however wasn’t to trouble the scorers again, but those points proved vital in the final tally. Evans rode in place of Chris Timms, who is still recovering from knee surgery, whilst Timms senior, Paul, rode in place of the unavailable Mark Winwood and scored 6 points. His score included a victory and a maximum heat advantage with Millward in heat 15, however he was on the pace throughout.
Millward took a second victory in heat 18 on his way to top scoring for the club, whilst Johnson took 2 paid wins to add to his points tally.
Ewan Hancox rode solidly all day and only a fall in his last race in heat 22 prevented a much higher score.
The East Park track held up well with constant drizzle throughout the day, which naturally saw some riders hitting the deck on occasions, but with world class riders on display there was always going to be some close racing and hard fought battles.
The Wednesfield club now have a 20 point lead over Birmingham at the half way stage of the competition with the Spring Cup returning to Ashmore Park in Wednesfield this Sunday (26th March 2pm).
Monarchs scorers – Scott Millward 17+1 (6), Ricki Johnson 14+2 (5), Ewan Hancox 13+1 (5), Paul Timms 6+1 (4), Russ Evans 4 (3).
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