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Tom Perry and Tom Bacon have also had time off injured this year. Again we never sought to cancel any fixtures.

Everyone is forgetting that Birmingham too have their injury problems. And it isn't about taking advantage its more about ensuring we get the matches in. Their are precious few dates available and both teams will also probably have play off matches to find room for.

Taken from Birminghams website: - BIRMINGHAM boss Graham Drury wants to see a packed out Perry Barr as their Kids Go Free promotion gets underway with a mouth-watering clash against King’s Lynn on Wednesday (7.30). The reigning National League Champions will be admitting all under-16’s free of charge for their four home meetings in August as they aim to get the next generation of supporters onto the terraces. The Perry Barr outfit currently sit nine points clear at the top of the third tier and will be looking to make it seven wins on the spin against the Young Stars. Drury reckons Wednesday’s fixture could be one of the meetings of the season and believes it will take another all-round team performance to see off the Norfolk side. “King’s Lynn are a dangerous team on their day and they have play-off aspirations of their own,” said Drury. “Some of their results this year haven’t surprised me at all because prior to the start of the season I thought they looked a very solid side and that’s proved to be the case so far. “With our riders riding out of their skin this year, I think we’re all in for a very entertaining meeting on Wednesday and we’re certainly going to have to dig deep to get another win on the board I feel. “This should be another terrific advert for National League racing and hopefully we’ll have plenty of support on the terraces to spur the boys on.” The Brummies have drafted in Mildenhall racer Danny Halsey to guest at No. 1 in place of the injured Zach Wajtknecht. Said Drury: “Danny rode remarkably well, scoring 11 points, for Mildenhall when he came to Perry Barr last week. “He was disappointed with his score for us when he guested at Eastbourne and was desperate to get another chance to prove himself. “He impressed a lot of people with the way he rode last Wednesday and I’m sure he’ll be fired up to get some more points while guesting for us against King’s Lynn.” Prior to the start of the meeting, supporters will also have the chance to walk the Perry Barr circuit with the Birmingham riders. With gates opening at 6.15, interested supporters are urged to arrive early and make their way straight round to the pits area with the track walk taking place between 6.30 and 6.40 only. Said Drury: “This is a great opportunity for the youngsters to step onto the track and feel what a speedway surface is really like. “All of our riders will be walking round with them and they’ll be explaining the different conditions. “We’ve got a good bunch of lads and they’ll be happy to answer any questions supporters have on the walk and will be more than happy to pose for a few photographs on the track itself as well.” BIRMINGHAM: Danny Halsey, Tom Bacon, Danyon Hume, Darryl Ritchings, Tom Perry, Jack Smith, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn. KING’S LYNN: Josh Bailey, Scott Campos, Ryan Kinsley, Tom Stokes, Nathan Greaves, Lewis Whitmore, Shane Hazelden.

The thing is we haven't got used to being the big fish in this pool and we have so much history of being there but not quite there I don't think we would or could ever shout out "we are gonna win this thing". It just would not sit right. Some have called us the Poole of the NL but you will never find us saying that. We are all still waiting for the wheels to come off while desperately hoping that they don't. And, truth be told, we are still reeling from nearly losing our speedway two years ago.

Can we attend for just the second part of the double header?

I think its on the cards but its gonna be close and I think a good match. Key for Birmingham is if Jack Smith goes better as he only scored 3 points last time there.

Perhaps from your perspective. But others have a different view on what happened. I wasn't there so cant really comment other than to say that GD has painted a very different picture and probably felt that he had to comment given YOUR published words. To be honest I cant agree with that. Most of the report is accurate. But of course it has been spun to favour the home side. Something that every side does. After all you cant expect any side to say something along the lines off: - It would have been entirely possible for us to get the fifteen heats in but we were very silly in the way we ran the meeting and really should have got things moving on quickly. Perhaps we should take a look at the professional way Birmingham do things.

Really? Taken from the kent kings website: - The manner of the eventual victory, though, left a nasty taste in the mouth - when tactics replaced racing as the match reached a climax which ultimately was prematurely cut short: the dreaded ‘curfew’ denying the SLYDE Kings (and the public) the last heat decider which such a keenly contested battle demanded. And Actually by heat 13 indeed the scores were level again at 39-39 all, but by this point a different tactic seemed at play with the ever approaching curfew of 8.30pm being used as a stick to beat the hosts with. Ritchings had been ineffective all meeting and had taken a knock from his earlier fall. Rather than directly replacing him though in heat 13, the two minutes allowance was simply exceeded before Parkinson-Blackburn then took every second of the next 120 seconds allowance before getting to the tapes. This had followed a similar set of circumstances in the previous heat: the impressive Smith hadn’t had any problems starting or indeed racing up to this juncture but unaccountably didn’t make it out of the pits. It seemed he was being saved for heat 14 but the upshot of the delay caused by exclusion and Parkinson-Blackburn replacing his namesake, was that valuable time was lost as the witching hour approached.

That has been the case a couple of times this year (minus the rain) once against Kent. Not once have we tried to waste time.

You would not have seen the post as it was on another forum. I understand you do not agree with it but that does not make your version of events right (or wrong.) Gasblokes previous post seems to have gone out of the way to be nuetral, for which I applaud and perhaps should be the final word on the matter. 2 hours not time enough to get a meeting done? Your having a laugh if you don't think you can get 15/16 minutes of racing done inside 2 hours. Birmingham regularly do it in 90 minutes and that is with an interval. Just takes a bit of organisation. Oh and by the way. No-one complains.

As an extra thought: - It has long been lamented that speedway doesn't (Like many sports these day's) have any real characters left. And yet when one emerges like Jack Smith he is vilified. But you can be sure that his perceived action, right or wrong will put bums on seats come our next meeting (which could conceivably be in a final or two. Surely that is something speedway needs these days. I don't blame the Kent promoter for stirring the pot in the way that he has done. He is looking at the bigger picture for Kent in that one.

As ever there are two sides to every story. the following was posted on the Birmingham fans forum: - My first visit to the home of the Kent Kings and have to say a lovely stadium, great shaped track and a very wide and impressive blue groove all around the inside line - it was reminiscent of watching the indoor stuff at Brighton many years ago with riders sitting on the start line heating up their rear tyres as much as possible to try and get some traction on the concrete. On to the meeting - with only two hours to run it, and having missed the curfew last time out against Rye House, I was amazed at 6.30 to have 3 mascots each taking it in turn to do their 4 laps whilst the Kings and the Brummies stood in the sunshine on the trailer waiting to be introduced. Heat 2 hadn't started at 6.55 due to Luke Bowen missing the 2minutes in heat 1 (then doing his Charlie Dimmock impersonation when he did get to the grid) and Jack Thomas doing the same in heat 2 first time around.He also did a couple of 'victory' laps after the race to presumably convince the ref he had passed Zach on the run in to the line. There was a clash going into the first turn in heat 2 rerun between Jack and Danno Verge but quite simply Jack held his ground off one and wouldn't be intimidated - should also mention that Verge was down for about 10 minutes on the centre green following this clash but then walked back as right as rain to the pits on the opposite side of the stadium. Daryl did 'fall off' in heat 4 and stay down but with the race on the third lap and Kent riders clear of JPB it was always going to be awarded but not something we like to see whoever does it. Cue the Kent fightback in heats 4, 5 & 6 and also the Kent riders going around for victory laps holding flags and beating their chests like Tarzan in front of the grandstand to great ovations (all well received by the home fans despite the clock seriously ticking at that point). Heat 6 also saw the incident between Jack S and Luke Bowen - Bowen is a top man in this league with an average of over 10.5 and he seriously didn't take kindly to Jack flying past him - a lap or two later he came up the inside of Jack and quite simply took him to the fence and dumped him in it. Even the Kent fans was with felt it had to be Bowen excluded but no it was Smith and understandably he was annoyed with the decision. Heat 7 also saw Danny Ayres try desperately to fence Smith with an horror move on bends 3 & 4 but fortunately for Jack he missed - again a view also held by the Kent fans. Things calmed down then for a couple of heats and Graham D did switch his reserves but it did give some riders two on the trot and hence slightly longer delays. Heat 10 saw our 3rd exclusion on track when Danyon in 3rd place pirouetted on the concrete and Luke Clifton did a great job of laying the bike down - more frustration for Jack S in this one as once again he had got in front of Bowen and was holding him until the race was stopped and as always happens Bowen beat him to the first turn in the re-run and that was that. Also worth noting that Clifton was also down on the centre green for about 10 minutes then he too ran over the centre green as Verge had done in heat 2 before him wasting more valuable time - by now it was gone 8 but no urgency being shown. Heats 12 & 13 saw Brummie exclusions for exceeding 2 minutes but that was only the same amount of times as Kent and again we had JPB doing 2 on the trot so surely extra time?? And then heat 14 and another great ride by Smith greeted with lots of abuse from the stands - so Jack did what all the Kent race winners had done and went around beating his chest and his big Brummie B and guess what they didn't like it and gave him what for - he was wrong in gesturing back but hes a young kid who had ridden brilliantly. Final couple of things - well done Tom Bacon - awesome gating and held them all back at one point or another and perhaps Kent rather than blaming the Brummies should talk to the ref about getting the meeting running quicker, talk to their riders about being ready to go and not doing victory laps waving flags if time is running out and finally talk to the tractor driver and bowser man and tell him to put it in 2nd gear next time!!

As far as I can see (and I wasn't there I have to own up to) nothing happened that was not within the rules. Nothing happened that has not happened before. Nothing happened that wont happen again. Therefore by definition there was no cheating involved and your last statement is therefore slander. (And I imagine your grapes don't taste very sweet either.) The bottom line is run your meeting quicker and this wouldn't happen. It would never happen at Brum.

Should be a regulation win. (Don't like the date though!)

I do love the denial shown by Eastbourne supporters. The fact is you do have a (to use the popular vernacular) a trick track. Everyone knows it. The riders know it. YOU know it. You can argue all you like, as some have, that it just takes more skill to ride and therefore your riders are just more skillful, and that is certainly an opinion. I however would counter that what it really takes is familiarity, which as a home track comes with the territory. This is backed up by Eastbourne having a worse away record than its closest rivals. Something that won Birmingham the league last year and will probably mean that both Kent and Birmingham will finish the league season above Eastbourne. Then of course come the play offs and things change. Is that fair? Doesn't matter if it's fair or not, its the rules. I would prefer not to have play offs and Easbourne would prefer to have them.Sort of say's it all really. However for those writing us off should we get to the final (And I am not arrogant enough to think we or Eastbourne are a shoe in for the play off finals.) I seem to remember a KOC final many years ago where everyone wrote Birmingham off. Nothing is decided until the fat lady sings. Good luck to ALL the riders tonight, please no injuries. But I would like just a little more luck for the Brummie lads please if the gods could arrange it. :-) I won't be making the trip I'm afraid. My experience of Eastbourne is not my type of speedway so I can't really justify the expense and the distance. However should we meet in the play offs I think I may just change my mind.

Im not subscribing to the doom and gloom. Everyone said we had no hope of holding onto the four point lead against Kent. And we increased it.This team keeps on surprising.

Still unbeaten.

Swings and roundabouts my friend. Birmingham could have said exactly the same from the first leg.

Brummies six points up on aggregate at the interval.

Do try to keep up.

Have to disagree with you there. You should have won with Birmingham having to ride with one hand behind there back.

Dont believe it. Don't get caught out again. Our track dries fast.

Probably the two form teams at the moment clashing at Perry Barr this week. Should be a good one.

http://www.birminghambrummies.co/news.php?extend.2252