Following a crash in Poland on sunday evening and sustaining a wrist injury Rory Schlein was declared unfit to ride, so his programmed rides were taken by the rest of the Bees side under the Rider Replacement facility.
The meeting started off well for the Bees with Billy Janniro leading the way in the 1st heat with Fridays maximum man Jason Crump relegated to 3rd place. A drawn reserves heat 2 was followed by a Bees 5-1 in heat 3 to open up an early 4 point lead. Unfortunately this lasted until heat 6 where an Aces 5-1, following a 4-2 advantage on the previous heat, took the Aces into the lead of the match for the first time.
The lead was further stretched to 6 point in heat 10 with Jason Crump leading the way ahead of Chris Harris and Billy Janniro.
Whilst an outright victory would have taken the Bees into the Craven shield final as best group winners, the Bees couldn't quite get there, a 5-1 reverse in heat 13 being the final blow.
Heat 14 proved to be a pivtal moment in the tie. Billy Janniro took the tactical ride and the Bees pairing led home the aces, but with Janniro's points counting for double, his partner Andreas Messing didn't let Billy through for the 8-1 advantage that would have put the Bees into a winnable position. This 7-1 heat victory meant that a 5-1 advantage in the final heat would produce yet another draw between these 2 sides.
The Aces pair of Crump and Gjedde lined up against Harris and Janniro, but sadly the Aces duo rounded off their night with a 5-1 heat advantage making the final score 50-42 to the Aces.
However by keeping the points deficit to under 18 points they go into a 2-leg semi-final against Poole to keep alive their hopes of retaining the Craven shield.
Bees scorers tonight were:
1. Rory Schlein R/R
2. Olly Allen 0, 0, 2, 1', 0 = 3+1
3. Chris Harris 2', 2, 2', 1, 2, 0 = 9+2
4. Billy Janniro 3, 3, 3, 0, 4'!, 1 = 14+1
5. Simon Stead 3, 1, 2, 2, 1 = 10
6. Andreas Messing 3, 0, 0, 1', 3 = 7+1
7. Stan Burza 0, 0, 0 = 0