Report: Birmingham 55 Cradley Heathens 35
Cradley Heathens slipped to their first defeat of the season at the hands of title favourites Birmingham in last night's Perry Barr derby clash.
The Heathens went into the meeting on the back of two home wins at Wolverhampton but they couldn't stop a rampant Brummies side who had superior all-round strength.
A bumper crowd on a glorious night created a superb atmosphere as the rivals locked horns for the first time this season.
Cradley's big-hitters of Ashley Morris, Max Clegg and Luke Chessell made far more of a match of it than Buxton had one week earlier.
But they had precious little support, as they finished the meeting pointless for the first time this season.
It went wrong for Cradley in the first race when skipper Clegg suffered bike trouble on the last lap to hand the home side a 4-2 after he had led from start.
After 12 heats Cradley could still have salvaged a point from the meeting, but the home side came up with a big 5-1 from heat 13.
Morris was upstaged for the first time while Clegg went backwards during the race and eventually retired.
Ritchings and Wajtknecht won the final two races and although Perry missed out to Clegg for second place in a terrific heat 15 battle, it was little consolation for the Heathens.
Cradley will look to bounce back when they face King's Lynn at Monmore Green on Monday.
BIRMINGHAM 55: Zach Wajtknecht 12+1, Tom Perry 11, Darryl Ritchings 10, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 7+4, Danyon Hume 6+2, Tom Bacon 6+2, Jack Smith 3.
CRADLEY 35: Ashley Morris 10, Luke Chessell 9+1, Max Clegg 9, Jack Kingston 3+1, Bradley Andrews 2, Ben Basford 2, James Purchase 0.
