Around the Premier League Tracks 2007

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Saturday, 13 October

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As the season reaches a climax with so many important meetings coming hard on the heels of each other it was disappointing that the match at Workington where the Comets were due to race their first leg, semi-final match in the Young Shield against Redcar was postponed due to a waterlogged track. The other match due to be raced did take place. At Stoke the Potters took on Birmingham in a second leg, semi-final Young Shield tie.


Young Shield, semi-final, second leg: Stoke 46, Birmingham 43 Birmingham qualified for the final on aggregate by 97-84.

Stoke were again without Rusty Harrison and Glenn Cunningham so used Rider Replacement at number 4 for Harrison and Tony Atkin as a guest at number 3 for Cunningham. Birmingham were without Henning Bager, Manuel Hauzinger, Henrik Moller and Ben Powell. To patch up their team they had Rider Replacement for Manuel Hauzinger at number 1 as a result of Hauzinger’s average now taking him to number 2 in the Birmingham averages. They also had three guests – Shaun Tacey for Henrik Moller at number 4, Chris Schramm at number 5 for Henning Bager and Paul Clews at number 6 for Ben Powell.

Birmingham had an 18 point lead from the first leg at Perry Barr on Wednesday night but that would not have bothered Stoke too much after pulling back a 24 point deficit against Somerset in the previous round.

There are not many details available about this match. The scores were tied after the opening two heats but Stoke opened up a four point lead after heat 5. However Birmingham pulled that back and after eight heats the scores were tied again at 24-24 leaving the Potters still 16 points adrift on aggregate.

Tony Atkin fell in heat 9 and was excluded then in heat 10 Lee Complin was given the verdict on the line for the race win over Jason Lyons, a decision which did not meet universal agreement. By heat 14 Stoke were in front by two points at 43-41 then, in the last race, the Potters scored a 3-2 when Lyons had been excluded after falling and Lee Complin had been excluded after bringing down Phil Morris to give them a three point win on the night. Birmingham’s passage into the final never looked in any danger though.

Scorers: For Stoke – Lee Complin 12+2, Claus Vissing 11, Barrie Evans 10+2, Ben Barker 8, Tony Atkin 5, Jaimie Smith 0.

For Birmingham – Phil Morris 13, Jason Lyons 11, Paul Clews 8+1, Chris Schramm 5+2, Lee Smart 5+2, Shaun Tacey 1.