The Coventry Bees travelled to Birmingham this evening for the second leg Midland cup tie against the Brummies, following an impressive first leg victory at Brandon on friday night.
Minus Chris Harris, who is in New Zealand ready for the first Grand Prix of the season this saturday, and also Arron Summers and Leigh Lanham, so in came Lee Complin and Jan Gravesen.
The Bees seized the initiative over the first 2 heats opening up a 4 point lead, before taking control on the night with 5-1 maximum's in heats 4 and 7 with Scott Nicholls and Eddie Kennett both in fine form. After heat 7 the Bees held a 27-15 lead but the Brummies pulled this back over the next 2 heats to make the score 28-34 to the Bees after heat 10.
Heats 11 and 12 were drawn to set up an exciting final 3 heats with Birmingham aiming to reduce the 6 point deficit further, but the Bees were having none of this and a heat 13 4-2 to Coventry was followed by a match winning maximum 5-1 in heat 14 setting up an unassailable 12 point margin and triggering the home suport to begin leaving the stadium.
Another maximum in heat 15 resulted in a win for the Bees by 54 ponts to 38, with the Bees scorers are shown below, with a match against Wolverhampton scheduled for Brandon tomorrow night.