Birmingham & Solihull win promotion on glorious day

BIRMINGHAM & SOLIHULL 31 REDRUTH 7 Just as it is in all facets of modern life, but perhaps more so in sport than any other, timing is everything. Have it and anything is possible, have it not and nothing is probable. Whether it’s breaking opponents’ hearts by scoring a 100m try after ten minutes of frantic defending or nipping into the Championship just when central funding is upped to

£300,000, Birmingham & Solihull seem to have discovered theirs’.

They achieved both feats on Saturday with a clinical dismissal of a Redruth team that had hoped this fixture would confirm their own status as league winners.

Yet while the Cornishmen have faltered of late, Russell Earnshaw’s Bees have been relentless. This was the Silhillians’ 12th consecutive victory, for nearly half a season they have not dropped a single point. Timing doesn’t come much better and for that reason alone they are worthy champions.

But it has not always been this club’s virtue, in fact it is a relatively recently phenomenon. Only slightly more than a year ago they couldn’t help themselves but for squandering winning positions and coaching staff.

Steve Williams and Ben Harvey left within six months of each other - having put together the worst squad in recent times down Sharmans Cross way - and then Allan Lewis balked at joining a sinking ship.

By the stage Earnshaw had assumed control and they had determined which way was up, they were down.

But that’s all in the past. On the field Bees are not only back where they were before the self-destruct button was pressed, they are in a better position.

When they left National One it was a bloated slugfest of a division where perspiration was prized above inspiration, with no appeal to television and token RFU money.

When they next play at level two it will be in the governing body’s all-singing and dancing 12-team league with an imaginative play-off structure and the prospect of facing Leinster and Moseley in the new cup competition. A certain ubiquitous satellite company are even showing an interest.

Timing, as they say, is everything.

And so it was here on Saturday. A few big day nerves? Have a converted try within 40 seconds.

Opponents not lying down? Score another just before half time.

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Visitors still not done? Spend the first ten minutes after the restart absorbing their best shots and then scamper from the back of your own in-goal area down the other end. It was classic Rope-a-dope stuff.

It was also the champagne moment, Earnshaw’s pre-match ban on putting the bubbly on ice had clearly not been heeded as magnificent Simon Hunt grabbed his 31st try of an outstanding season.