MatchResults

Somerset suffered the heart-ache of a second successive runner-up spot in the Premier League Pair Championship held at a packed Oak Tree Arena on Friday night, Birmingham coming from virtually nowhere to claim the 2009 title.

The initial group stages saw the King’s Lynn Stars and Somerset dominate Group A, the Rebels coming back from a shock 7-2 reversal against the Stars in their opening ride to then remain unbeaten from their following three rides to eventually finish just a single point behind them as both teams booked their places in the semi-finals with relative ease.

Perhaps worryingly though for the King’s Lynn fans amongst the packed Oak Tree arena crowd, after seemingly cruising through to the semi-finals, the first chinks appeared in the Stars armour in their last group outing when the precocious Darcy Ward came to grief trying a wildly ambitious move to pass Scunthorpe’s Magnus Karlsson, Ward’s apparent inexperience on this occasion would come back to haunt the Norfolk side in those semi-finals.

Group B saw Workington head and shoulders above their opposition, dropping just a single point from their four outings, but behind them, the battle for the other semi-final spot saw first one side, then another stake their claim.

Initially, Redcar put themselves in the ‘box seat’ but then the wheels fell off the Bear’s wagon as they found themselves on the wrong end of two maximum 7-2 heat wins against Workington and, crucially, Birmingham, respectively, and so it was that Edinburgh picked up the cudgel, but inconsistency, and in particular three last places from their four outings, were to cost the Monarchs dear, leaving Birmingham to sneak up on the rails, two maximum heat wins in their final two rides being enough to see them through to the semi-finals, this after they looked dead and buried after their first two rides which saw them muster just five points in total.

The first semi-final saw the aforementioned Brummies up against King’s Lynn, the experience of Birmingham’s Jason Lyons coming to the fore as he out-witted Ward as they headed down the back straight, relegating the King’s Lynn youngster to the back.

Desperate to get back past Lyons, rather than bide his time, Ward steamed under his adversary as they took to the first turn on the second lap with the inevitable consequence of Lyons hitting the deck and Ward earning an exclusion from the re-run for his pains.

All Birmingham had to ensure was that both their riders finished the second running of the heat to book their place in the final and King’s Lynn, one of the pre-meeting favourites were consigned to the sidelines.

The second semi-final between Somerset and Workington was, given the Comets form in the group stages, a somewhat surprisingly one sided affair as at the second time of asking, the first attempt to run it getting no further than the first bend with Steve Johnston coming to grief in what was a very tight first turn, Johnston and Kramer sped away from the tapes to take a relatively easy victory and a place in the final.

If the home fans were hoping that the Rebels would go one better than their second place finish 12 months earlier, those hopes were quickly dashed in the first 30 metres of the start as Lyons and Piszcz made by far the better get-away, and although Johnston finally hunted down and passed Piszcz, it was a case of too little, too late, and with Lyons taking the race win, it was Birmingham that were to take the top spot on the podium, and with it the title of 2009 Premier League Pairs Champions, leaving Somerset as runners-up for the second year in a row.