Birmingham final meeting of 2018 v Heathens Select and Wolves Select

[brianbuck]

This wasn't a meeting which supporters of any of the three teams would have been desperate to win! The general wish of Birmingham supporters was for another meeting if, as it turned out, we missed out on the play-off's, and the 3-team match was a popular suggestion. The teams needed to be reasonably well matched, bearing in mind the fact that a number of riders from all three were either out of action through injury, or for various reasons, not available on this particular night. All three teams tracked a 3-pointer as their fourth rider, and understandably, Birmingham would have wanted to use all of their rider who were available, and couldn't be expected to put all three 3-pointers in the same team.

The Wolverhampton teams was the least representative since Nathan Greaves was out injured and none of their other men could be considered of National League standard (apart from perhaps Ashley Morris). Cradley had two more than decent top NL men in Kemp and Morley plus Joe Lawlor who had previous Cradley connections. Obviously there would have been more Heathens supporters at the meeting if their team had been stronger, but even so, there looked a fair number from both Cradley and Wolverhampton among what looked a quite good crowd for an end of season fixture filler.

The 18-heat six-rides each meant that team managers' were not needed since all of the riders could only take their programmed rides. The fact that Wolves and Cradley teams did not wear their club colours was a pity, but if their clubs did not supply them, then the Birmingham promotion couldn't be expected to conjure them up out of mid-air.

The meeting itself wasn't the best I have seen, but it was far from being the worst, and there was some pretty decent races, and after a bit of a slow start caused by a couple of early crashes, and a bit of leniency from the referee at the starts, the meeting ran through pretty well. After Joe Lawlor withdrew, Birmingham always looked comfortable winners, but things would have been a good deal closer if Lawlor had taken all his rides.