A severely depleted Coventry Cycle Speedway team suffered their first defeat of the 2015 season as they went down 106-73 to Wednesfield Aces at Hearsall Common last Sunday afternoon in front of their biggest crowd of the season.
The Hearsall Common side without top Polish stars Dominik Rycharski and Konrad Pietak, together with former British junior champion Dave Frith. They were also without teenage sensation Kyle Roberts, who is still side-lined with a broken arm.
Coventry made a steady start to the meeting, with heat leaders Myke Grimes and Bobby McMillan matching the powerful Wednesfield side wheel to wheel. However, they lacked strength in depth and the visitors soon took command.
Three consecutive maximum 7-3 heat advantages for the Aces confirmed their dominance as the Wolverhampton side reached the half way stage – heat 9 – leading by a commanding 18 points.
Despite Coventry claiming the advantageous inside gate positions, as a consequence of
being more than 10 points behind, Wednesfield proved too strong in the second half and eventually pulled away for a convincing victory.
Grimes, mounted on new machinery, led the Coventry scorers with three superb race wins and he received excellent support from Australian ace McMillan. It was an uphill task for the rest of the Coventry team but all the side produced maximum effort in all their races to keep the Aces on their toes.
Coventry point scorers:
Myke Grimes 18, Bobby McMillan 16, Matt Lawrence 10, Dan Drewett and Mason Phillips 7, Tom Sensicall, Joe McLaughlin and Charlie Barnett all 5.
Coventry turned the tables on the Wednesfield club, by racing to a 69-60 success in the supporting Midland league division two fixture. Ollie Morris proved to be the stand out performer for Coventry with his best performance of the season.
Coventry point scorers:
Tom Sensicall 15, Jake Slatter 13, Ollie Morris and Charlie Barnett 11, Shaun Reynolds
10 and Sammi Marsh 8.
Coventry also won the Midland Junior league match between the sides by 41-36, with Ben Wells, Bailie Phillips and Jack Reynolds all in fine form for the home side.
Racing at Birmingham last Saturday, in the British Junior & Youth league round 2, Spencer Sawbridge of Coventry brilliantly overcame a tapes exclusion in the qualifiers to recover to win the final of the under 14s series.
It means the 13 year old Coundon Court schoolboy will head to the third round, at Coventry on Saturday 16th May, with two finals wins, after also winning the first round at Leicester recently.
Coventry stage the second round of the Coventry Junior League at Hearsall Common this Sunday (3rd May), with the action commencing at 2pm.
Teams representing Coventry Devlins, Earlsdon Hammers, Leicester Monarchs and Birmingham Monarchs will be contesting the highly popular and expended league this year, which has been formed to cope with soaring interest in the pedal sport in Coventry.
For more information on Coventry Cycle Speedway club, including how to get involved, you can visit www.coventrycyclespeedway.co.uk or follow the club on Twitter using @CoventryCSC.