The Newcastle Diamonds rode a spectacular meeting at Birmingham last night to lose out by only two points in a match where they came away with a wealth of pride for their excellent efforts.

With the lead changing hands regularly all meeting, Newcastle’s achievement was even more impressive as early in the match they were cut down to five men following a 360-degree spin and fall for Jamie Robertson in Heat Two, picked up concussion and was ruled out of the meeting by the track doctor with 13 heats to go.

George Stancl was again out of action and Rider Replacement netted 6 points, equalling it’s best yet, but again had Stancl been fit, his stronger scoring power could well have tipped a tiny away defeat into a vital away victory.

There was a scare at the start of Heat Three when Jason Lyons, the former Newcastle skipper and current Newcastle
captain Christian Henry collided coming out onto the track, thankfully with no ill effects to either racer.

Birmingham led from Heat Two and pressed their advantage in
Heat Six with Henning Bager and Lee Smart taking a solid maximum over Sean Stoddart and guest from Redcar, Dan Giffard to extend the home lead to 21-15 and then Newcastle began the much needed fight back.

In Heat Seven, Henry and Jason King shot out from the gate to lead comfortably over Jack Roberts and Adam Roynon early on and held it to win to clamber back to only two points down, followed by a thrilling Heat 8 where Josef Franc led from the off and Stoddart tucked in behind, the latter just clinging on to second as Smart nearly passed him on the finish line in a second maximum to put the Diamonds into the lead 23-25.

After the all conquering Lyons and Roberts partnership regained the lead for the Brummies in Heat 9, Henry’s superb win coupled with King’s well held third in Heat 10 levelled the match on a very sharp knife-edge at 30 all with only five races to go.

Newcastle sneaked the lead again in Heat 11, by 32-34 before
Roynon and Bager took an unexpected 5-1 in Heat 13 over the previously excellent Franc, who was inexplicably subdued this time out, to again take the lead 40-38, setting up a grandstand finish for the assembled masses.

Newcastle’s King and Stoddart annihilated Roberts and Smart in Heat 14 to leave the score at 41-43 with one to go, but Henry’s nerves got the better of him in the final heat as he broke through the tapes to incur a referee’s penalty, ending up on a 15m handicap, a gap which was too great for the Aussie to overcome in the re-run and with Franc also unable to dent the Lyons/Roynon partnership with his earlier form, the match was lost but only by two points.

Team Manager George English said: “This was a fine effort from the lads and it was so disappointing when things went so wrong in the final heat. Still there’s a lot of pride to be taken from their work tonight, but to get as close with only five riders takes some doing and credit is deserved.”

Birmingham Brummies 46
Henning Bager 0,3,2,2* = 7+1
Lee Smart 2,2*,1,0,0 = 5+1
Jason Lyons 3,3,3,3,3 = 15
Phil Morris – Rider Replacement
Adam Roynon 3,0,2,3,2* = 10+1
Jack Roberts ® 2*,R,0,1,2*,R,1 = 6+2
Mattia Carpanese ® 3,0,N2,0,0 = 3

Newcastle “Sapphire Engineering” Diamonds 44 
Josef Franc 3,2,3,3,0,1 = 12
George Stancl – Rider Replacement
Christian Henry © 2,3,3,2,0 = 10
Jason King 1*,1*,2*,1,3 = 8+3
Daniel Giffard (guest) 1,2,0,1,1 = 5
Jamie Robertson ® Fx,N2,N,N = 0
Sean Stoddart ® 1,1*,1,2*,1,1*,2* = 9+4