Cradley 40, Birmingham 49

CRADLEY'S title hopes suffered a serious blow as rivals Birmingham dished out defeat to replace them at the top of the National League.

The contest at Perry Barr tonight was hard-fought throughout until maximum point hauls in the last two heats gave the Brummies the bragging rights.

The Heathens, who had to contend with the absence of star man Nathan Greaves due to a broken leg, had been keen to bounced straight back from the weekend defeat against Mildenhall.

However, the Brummies put their fellow Perry Barr tenants to the sword in front of a bumper crowd of speedway fanatics.

The much-anticipated derby clash saw the league's top two go head-to-head for vital points in the race for title glory.

The meeting started well for the Brummies as Adam Ellis was awarded the winning points after young Cradley rider Tyler Govier slid out when the Birmingham man was well in control ahead of Max Clegg on the final lap.

The messy start to proceedings continued with a host of crashes in the second heat of the night. Again it was awarded to the Brummies with Adam Kirby in front on that occasion.

It meant the visitors edged the early stages in a meeting that looked like going to the wire.

Cradley hit back with a win of their own in heat four as Matt Williamson held off the attention of Tom Perry to bag his side's first success of the evening.

However, like heat three before it, the points were shared as the teams continued to fight hard for every point on offer.

It was a theme of the evening that saw eight of the 15 heats drawn overall.

Heat eight saw a brilliant ride from Ellis Perks as he stormed from last to first to bag a much-needed win despite starting with a 15 metre penalty after engine trouble.

He backed that up with another win in heat nine as a Cradley 4-2 cut the scores to just one point.

The next four heats were again drawn. Clegg and Perks won for Cradley while Adam Ellis and Perry bagged wins for Birmingham. But each time their opponents made sure to fill the places in behind to keep matters tight as the encounter draw to a thrilling conclusion.

The decisive moment came in heat 14 when the brilliant Zach Wajknecht powered to the line in front of teammate Kirby.

It handed the Brummies a five point lead at just the right time.

The visitors then wrapped up the evening in style as Wajknecht again took the win in the final heat. Again his teammate followed him home for another maximum to hand Cradley a serious title setback as well as derby day disappointment.

CRADLEY 40: Ellis Perks 13, Max Clegg 11, Matt Williamson 8+1, Arron Mogridge 5+2, Luke Harris 3+1, Tyler Govier 0, Nathan Greaves r/r

BIRMINGHAM 49: Zac Wajtknecht 14, Adam Ellis 11+1, Adam Kirby 9+3, Tom Perry 9, Sam Chapman 4+1, Alex Wilson 2+1, Sean Phillips 0 National League points: Cradley 0 Birmingham 4