At a cold Monmore Green the Bees took to the track fielding their new line up for the first time this season, in a challenge match against the reigning champions Wolverhampton.
Whilst Chris Harris took the opening heat, the Bees reserve pairing were on the wrong end of a 5-1 in heat 2, with heat 3 going the same way as Ben Barker and Rory Schlein could make no impression on the Wolves duo.
A heat 4 advantage win for the Bees was cancelled out in Heat 5 as try as Harris might he couldn't find a way past old timer Joe Screen.
The on the night match score was reduced to a 6 point deficit for the Bees in heat 6 as the team started to find their feet, with 3 of the next 4 heats being drawn. Despite this being a challenge there was some excellent racing being shown by both sides who were obviously keen to set down some early season markers.
The gap remained at 6 points until Heat 13 which saw a win for Chris Harris. Havign swapped places with Wolf Lindgren for the first couple of laps Chris found himself chasing for the lead, and took the win on the run in to the line off the last corner.
Despite the Wolves gating on a maximum 5-1 in heat 14 that would have seen them take victory on the night, the Bees Ben Barker followed the exploits of his captain to come from 3rd to 1st and take the match into a last heat decider with the Bees 4 points behind.
Again the Wolves gated to an early 5-1 position but Chris Harris just doesn't give up and some hard riding saw him take the heat win in almost a repeat of heat 13. Sadly for the Bees Edward Kennett fell whilst avoiding the hard charging Harris, so the drawn heat left the final score as Wolverhampton 47 Coventry 43, with the return leg of the challenge at Brandon this friday weather permitting.
The Coventry scorers on the night were:
1. Chris Harris - 3, 2, 3, 3, 3 = 14
2. Christian Hefenbrock - 0, 0, 1', 1 = 2+1
3. Rory Schlein - 0, 3, 3, 2 = 8
4. Ben Barker - 1, 0, 0, 3 = 4
5. Eddie Kennett - 3, 3, 2, 1, F = 9
6. Josh Auty - 1, 1, 0, 1 = 3
7. Filip Sitera - 0, 1, 2, 0 = 3