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| |  | BIRMINGHAM suffered their heaviest defeat of the season as they went down 62-28 to revitalised Oxford at Cowley.
The Curtis Sport Brummies actually made a promising start to the meeting and were level after four races, having provided two heat wins.
But the next six races saw them collapse to concede five 5-1s, and then after sharing Heats 11 and 12 either side of the interval there was a further hat-trick of maximums for the hosts to take them over the 60-point mark.
Positives for the Brummies were hard to find, although Paco Castagna could be satisfied with his performance whilst Ben Barker gave a typically committed display on his comeback to the club, and both deserved their nominations for Heat 15.
Brummies did start well with Castagna an impressive winner of Heat 1, whilst Tobiasz Musielak was just unable to get on terms with Dan Thompson, as they opened with a 4-2.
That was cancelled out in Heat 2 although Barker did well to split the Spires combination, going around Luke Killeen on the second lap.
A terrific Heat 3 followed with Keynan Rew using the outside to hit the front on lap one before fending off the combined challenge of Maciej Janowski and Rohan Tungate, until a last-bend blast by Janowski took him to the flag first by just 0.017s.
But Brummies got back level with a 4-2 in Heat 4 as Matej Zagar took a smooth win with Sam Hagon, who made a great start from the inside, holding on for third place – but remarkably those were to be Zagar’s only points of the night.
From then on things rapidly went downhill, first when Spires duo Janowski and Tungate made fast starts in Heat 5 to race clear of Musielak and Castagna for a 5-1.
A 4-2 followed in Heat 6 with Thompson making it around Zagar for third place on the last lap to back up Charles Wright, and then Peter Kildemand and Erik Riss gated to a 5-1 to extend the lead to ten points.
The next track grade did nothing to stem the tide as Oxford reeled off three more 5-1s to make it four in succession, with Killeen and Thompson defeating Castagna in Heat 8, the Janowski/Tungate combination carding another 5-1 in the next, and then Thompson and Wright outpaced Rew with Jonas Jeppesen barely leaving the start line to make it 41-19.
The match was gone by this stage but Brummies did keep a previously unbeaten Kildemand at the back of Heat 11, which earned Castagna a tactical substitute ride in Heat 12.
He added a further second place there behind Janowski as Barker won a ding-dong scrap with Killeen for third.
But Wright and Riss charged away from Musielak for a home 5-1 in Heat 13, and Heat 14 was a highlight of the night for the Spires as Kildemand and Tungate both raced past Rew on the outside, the latter on the run to the line.
Tungate and Riss then set the seal on things with a third successive 5-1 in Heat 15, and an eighth overall, to round off a thoroughly forgettable night for Birmingham.
Brummies are back in action at Perry Barr on Monday when they face King’s Lynn, once again in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership.
OXFORD 62: Erik Riss 11+3, Rohan Tungate 11+2, Maciej Janowski 11+1, Peter Kildemand 9, Charles Wright 8+1, Dan Thompson 8+1, Luke Killeen 4.
BIRMINGHAM 28: Paco Castagna 8, Ben Barker 7+1, Keynan Rew 5, Tobiasz Musielak 4+1, Matej Zagar 3, Sam Hagon 1, Jonas Jeppesen 0.
Photo credit: LES AUBREY
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