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| |  | BIRMINGHAM’S wait for a win in 2025 goes on after Oxford completed a Bank Holiday double with a comeback victory at Perry Barr.
The massive frustration for the Curtis Sport Brummies is that they were 18-12 up after five races, despite suffering some serious misfortune in Heat 2, but the Spires then worked their way back into the meeting and simply kicked on from there.
The majority of the damage was done by recent Oxford signing Craig Cook, who only made his seasonal debut for the club this morning, and a series of lighting starts took him to a 15-point maximum at reserve.
Brummies, meanwhile, seemed to lose their gating gloves midway through the meeting and they found themselves behind after Heat 11.
The home side enjoyed the welcome boost of a 5-1 in Heat 1 with Paco Castagna making a trademark fast start from the inside whilst captain Tobiasz Musielak stormed inside Erik Riss and Maciej Janowski on turn four to join him for a maximum.
The Spires got level in Heat 2 although Birmingham were hugely unfortunate as Danyon Hume moved inside Luke Killeen heading into the third bend and completed a clean pass before Killeen went down – and remarkably Hume found himself disqualified.
Killeen joined Cook for a 5-1 in the re-run, and whilst Keynan Rew rode strongly to win Heat 3 his team-mate Jonas Jeppesen was kept at the back.
But the Brummies did get themselves ahead again with maximum points in Heat 4, Michael Jepsen Jensen charging clear whilst Edwards held a great second place over Killeen and Spires heat leader Rohan Tungate.
The lead went up to six points when Rew made it two wins out of two, holding off Riss in Heat 5 with Jeppesen in third place, but this was quickly cancelled out by an Oxford 4-2 in the next, Musielak splitting Cook and Tungate.
Jepsen Jensen took control of Heat 7 with Edwards and Castagna packing in behind Riss in Heat 8, both of which were shared, but it was all square shortly after.
Rew found himself sandwiched heading into the first bend of Heat 9 by Cook and Tungate, and with Jeppesen’s outside run blocked the Spires were back level at 27-27.
Castagna flew out of gate two to take his second win in Heat 10 but Musielak’s attempted cut-back off the second bend was foiled by Peter Kildemand and Charles Wright as the race was shared.
And the Spires struck another big blow in the next when the previously unbeaten Jepsen Jensen missed out from the inside as Janowski pulled off his best start of the night to combine with Riss for a 5-1 which put the visitors ahead for the first time.
Again the Brummies had no answer to the fast gating of Cook in Heat 12 and although Edwards worked hard for second place ahead of a hard charging Wright, mechanical trouble for Jeppesen ensured an Oxford 4-2 which put them six points up.
Heat 13 was shared with Janowski taking the win for Oxford, meaning the Brummies’ final throw of the dice was a tactical substitute in Heat 14 as Musielak came into the race.
But from the outside gate Cook was absolutely electric as he reeled off his fifth straight win, with Kildemand adding third place to make doubly sure of the result.
The Spires rested maximum man Cook from the final race as Musielak and Jepsen Jensen completed a consolation 5-1 over Riss and Kildemand to leave the final margin at four points.
Brummies now have two weeks out of action in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership before their campaign resumes on May 19 with the second visit of the season of leaders Ipswich.
BIRMINGHAM 43: Tobiasz Musielak 11+1, Michael Jepsen Jensen 10+2, Paco Castagna 7+1, Jason Edwards 7+1, Keynan Rew 6, Jonas Jeppesen 2, Danyon Hume 0.
OXFORD 47: Craig Cook 15, Erik Riss 8+1, Peter Kildemand 7, Maciej Janowski 7, Charles Wright 4+3, Luke Killeen 3+1, Rohan Tungate 3+1.
Oxford win the aggregate point
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