Young Stars dig in for Birmingham win

King’s Lynn’s National Development Trophy team made it a double win for the club with a 48-41 comeback success at Birmingham last night.The Blueprint Construction Young Stars trailed by five points in the early stages of the meeting at Perry Barr with mechanical setbacks reminiscent of the senior side.But they rallied with 15-year-old Cooper Rushen outstanding at reserve, whilst skipper Jody Scott was involved in key 5-1s in Heats 11 and 13.Manager Jason Pipe said: “The lads dug in and we knew it was a hard one to come to tonight, because Birmingham have put a good team together, but we ground it out.“We knew if we could keep it quite tight with a few races to go, we had that firepower towards the back end of the meeting, and it came good in the end.“I’m pleased with the result. This is one of those places where if you want to win leagues, you’ve got to come and pick points up, so roll on the home match now.“Hopefully, this result will show the fans what a good team this is, and I hope they’ll turn out and support us two weeks on Wednesday. “These lads are already buzzing for that home match now. We’re leaving here tonight and they wish that home match was tomorrow.” There were some early dramas for the Young Stars with Max Perry missing his first ride due to bike issues, whilst Luke Harrison ground to a halt in Heat 4 and Lynn were fortunate when race leader Eli Meadows crashed on the last lap.Perry and Max James had a frightening pile-up in Heat 7 as they clashed on the back straight and came down heading into the third bend, with both thankfully able to walk away – and with James disqualified, Perry and Ashton Vale brought the Young Stars back to within a point with a 5-1 in the re-run.It was nip and tuck thereafter with Rushen – who had won three of his first four rides – very unfortunate to pick up a disqualification from Heat 9 when Darryl Ritchings came down after being passed by the Young Stars rider. But Luke Harrison prevented damage by winning the re-run, and after the Bulls briefly re-took the lead Scott was involved in big 5-1s with Rushen in Heat 11 and Harrison in Heat 13 to put the visitors three points up.Rushen and Perry sealed the win with a 4-2 in Heat 14 and the Young Stars would have finished with a 5-1 in Heat 15 only for Harrison to shed a chain in the closing stages and limp home third, as Scott again took the win. The Young Stars’ opening home fixture is the return match against the Bulls at the Adrian Flux Arena on Wednesday, April 30.Birmingham 41: Arran Butcher 10, Darryl Ritchings 10, Sam McGurk 7+1, Tom Spencer 5+3, Max James 4, Senna Summers 3, Eli Meadows 2+1.Young Stars 48: Cooper Rushen 15+2, Jody Scott 12, Luke Harrison 9+1, Ashton Vale 7, Max Perry 4+1, Harrison Rogers 1, Calum Mitchell 0.