However by using the rider replacement facility to cover Olly's absence the famed Bees team spirit was very much required to progress to the final.
Despite an opening heat advantage the Bees were 2 points behind on the night after heat 3. A further drawn heat in heat 4 followed but thereafter the Bees took command of the meeting with only 1 heat in the next 11 not gainign a heat advantage for the Bees. Led ably by Chris Harris the team spirit kicked ina nd the belief that the deficit could be overturned showed through.
The key heat of the evening was heat 11, where Poole's Bjarne Pedersen took a tactical ride where any points he scored ahead of a Bees rider would be doubled. The gap at this stage was 14 points on the night.
the Poole pairing of Skornicki (the star of the night on wedsnesday) and Pedersen took the lead but in attempting to pass his own teammate Pedersen picked up too much drive and hit the air fence hard. The race had to be stopped with Pedersen excluded from the re-run, and crucially for the Pirates he had to withdraw from the meeting.
The Bees pairing of Stead and Burza took a 4-2 advantage from the re-run and the cahse was on in earnest.
After heat 12 the Bees were 14 points ahead on the night and 10 behind on aggregate, needing three successive 5-1 heat maximums to progress to the final, and amazingly this they achieved, with the final score on the night being 58 points to 32, and an aggregate Bees win of 92 points to 90.
the Bees scorers were as follows and the defence of the Craven Shield is still very much on, with the Lakeside Hammers standing between the Coventry side and the trophy.
1. Chris Harris: 3 - 2' - 3 - 3 - 3 = 14+1 paid max
2. R/R
3. Rory Schlein: 0 - 1 - 3 - 2 = 6
4. Billy Janniro: 2 - 3 - 3 - 2' - 2' - 2' = 14+3
5. Simon Stead: 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 2' = 14+1 paid max
6. Stan Burza: 1 - 2 - 1 - 1 - 1 - 3 = 9
7. Ben Barker: fx - 0 - 1 - 0 = 1