STOKE A.R. Richards Potters suffered a 37-51 defeat against Birmingham in the Travel Plus National League extending the Brummies lead at the top of the table.

In an incident packed meeting which had some good racing, falls, engine failures and three riders withdrawn.

The action started in an incident packed first race as Ben Wilson suffered a mechanical failure off the start as he shed a chain, then Tom Bacon fell for Birmingham and remounted the bike, but Shaun Tedham then fell coming off the final turn and with Bacon following behind referee Graham Flint stopped the race awarding second place to Bacon behind comfortable race victor Zach Wajtknecht with Tedham being disqualified for a Brummies 5-0.

Things didn’t get any better for the Potters as Chris Hay and Paul Burnett outgated Jack Smith and Jack Parkinson-Blackburn, but the Brummies pairing quickly got past Burnett before Hay fell resulting in the Potters rider being disqualified. In the rerun Smith and Parkinson-Blackburn gained a 5-1 over Burnett who pushed them all the way to leave the Potters trailing 10-1.

It was again all action in heat three with the Potters outgating the Birmingham pairing and going into the third turn Darryl Ritchings was taken wide by partner Danyon Hume as they both came to grief Hume got up but Ritchings was still on the ground as the race was stopped with Hume being disqualified as the primary cause of the stoppage. Stoke raced to a 5-1 in the rerun with Tony Atkin and Rob Shuttleworth holding Ritchings at bay.

An exchange of 4-2’s in the next couple of heats left the Potters trailing 17-12 but then the news that Shaun Tedham had been withdrawn from the meeting after banging his head in his crash and that Chris Hay had also withdrawn left the Potters with just five riders, meaning some races would only have one Potter in them. Birmingham’s Zach Wajtknecht was also withdrawn after he suffered an engine failure in heat five and as he came off the track caught his fingers in his bikes spokes resulting in a painful hand injury for the youngster.

A 4-2 from Tom Perry and Smith over Wilson in heat six and Bacon and Parkinson-Blackburn 5-1 in heat eight extended the Brummies lead to 29-18.

The Potters still showed determination though and Shuttleworth and Atkin gained a 4-2 in heat nine over Perry and then a 3-2 heat advantage in heat ten as Wilson got the better of Ritchings after Hume was left kicking himself after he fell while leading.

The Brummies gained a couple of 4-2 heat advantages in the next couple of races before Wilson and Hopwood teamed up for a 4-2 over Perry, Wilson using all his track knowledge to keep Perry at bay.

Birmingham sealed all four league points with a 5-1 from Ritchings and Parkinson-Blackburn in heat fourteen to extend their lead at the top of the table leaving the Potters trailing 34-48 with one heat to go which was won by Perry from Atkin and Hopwood.

Stoke boss Malcolm Vasey commented “I don’t think anyone can complain about the effort we put in, but the disparity between Birmingham and us and in fact most of the National League doesn’t help and then our situation was not helped with the news that we’d lost both Shaun Tedham and Chris Hay in the opening two heats through injury. I know they lost Zach Wajtknecht but, there really is not much difference between the Birmingham riders and managed to cover his next two rides with their reserves and I have to give credit where it is due because Jack Smith and Jack Parkinson-Blackburn are a probably the best reserve pairing the the National League. I do think the main body of our team did very well under the circumstances and did their best to keep the score as tight as possible but it was an uphill struggle after we lost Shaun and Chris.”

STOKE 37: Ben Hopwood 9+1, Tony Atkin 9, Rob Shuttleworth 8+1, Ben Wilson 8, Paul Burnett 3, Shaun Tedham 0, Chris Hay 0.
BIRMINGHAM 51: Tom Perry 13, Tom Bacon 10+1, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 8+3, Darryl Ritchings 7+1, Danyon Hume 5, Jack Smith 5, Zach Wajtknecht 3.