The Coventry Bees travelled to the south coast for a Sky Sports TV meeting at the home of the league leaders Poole Pirates tonight, desperate to change the seasons momentum so far.
The task against the league leaders, and potentially one of the strongest Elite league sides seen in years, was always going to be a tough one especially with the Bees still utilising rider replacement for the injured Christian Hefenbrock, but the meeting was over after the 4th heat as Poole's gating on a slick track proved too strong as they hammered home 4 successive heat maximums to head by 20 points to 4.
With exaserbated team manager Alan Rossiter just wondering what he has to do to halt the current slide for the Bees, there were a few highlights - most notably a quite superb ride for Chris Harris in Heat 13 to go from third to first for only one of three Bees heat wins.
However Poole were superior in their gating and in their speed on the track, being able to pass the Bees riders who tried hard but just couldn't make an impression on the night.
A dominant Poole side ran out winners by 63 points to 29, with the Bees scorers as shown here:-
1. Chris Harris - 0,4,3,3,1 = 11
2. R/R
3. Rory Schlein - 1,0,0,2 = 3
4. Ben Barker - 0,1,2,1,2 = 6
5. Edward Kennett - 1,3,1,0,0 = 5
6. Ritchie Hawkins - 0,0,1,0,0 = 1
7. Filip Sitera - 1,1,0,1*,0,0 = 3+1
With the first grand prix of the season this saturday in Poland, the Bees take to the track at Brandon tomorrow night against the Lakeside Hammers, with Troy Batchelor in as a guest for Chris Harris who will be travelling to Poland.