THE Buildbase Bees overcame some nervous moments early in the second leg to safely secure their place in the Knockout Cup Final.
Their twelve-point first leg lead proved to be enough against a somewhat inconsistent Belle Vue side, all of whose six riders won at least one race, but they were never able to more than halve their aggregate deficit.
Bees were particularly well served again by captain Chris Harris, who put on another display of fast-gating and was the quickest rider on show, whilst Edward Kennett won three races and Ben Barker shared in two 5-1s, with Josh Auty also impressing at reserve.
It was a meeting which proved that overtaking is possible on a slick track, although Bees were left frustrated by a series of points thrown away in the first four races which should have seen them take a convincing lead only to find themselves 15-9 down and under some pressure.
Harris raced away with Heat 1 in a time nearly two seconds faster than any other, and an opening 5-1 looked possible when Barker joined him at the front - but Barker was moved aside by Niels-Kristian Iversen at the end of the first lap, and that created the gap for fellow Aces' guest Darcy Ward to follow him through with Bees having to settle for a 3-3.
Belle Vue, who had started by conceding three 5-1s against Ipswich last week, then went ahead as Joel Parsons made a good start in Heat 2 ahead of a wheel-to-wheel battle between Ward and Ricky Wells, with Ward making the outside work on lap two to pull clear in second place.
In the next race, just as in Heat 1 it was the Coventry riders who made the start, but as Kennett controlled things early on, Olly Allen drifted wide and that allowed both James Wright and Patrick Hougaard to come through and share the points.
Then in Heat 4, Rory Schlein was away in front only to get out of shape on turn two and drop to the back, as Auty neatly took the inside line to lead, an advantage he held right to the flag until being caught on the line by Krzysztof Kasprzak just when the Bees reserve had looked like taking a notable scalp.
Six points down, Bees needed a response and they found one in Heat 5 with Harris again in blistering form and Barker this time reversing his move from Heat 1 as this time he went from fourth to second, rounding Hougaard and Wright around the third and fourth bends and then resisting Hougaard's attempts to re-pass - which ended with Wright stealing third place on the line!
An entertaining meeting continued with a good battle between Iversen and Schlein in Heat 6, the duo trading elbows into the first bend and Schlein then nearly rounding the Dane later in the race, whilst further back Wells took advantage of a Parsons error to move into an important third place.
Kennett looked set for a second win of the meeting in Heat 7 as Allen lost out on third place to Ward, but Kasprzak again snatched the three points late on, pegging the inside on the last bend as Kennett went too wide to turn the race into a Belle Vue 4-2.
Bees had to battle hard in Heat 8 as Wright and Ward got out in front and Barker, who hadn't made it from gate 4, made a vital move around Ward at the end of the first lap, the bonus coming later in the race when Ward made a mistake on the second bend allowing Auty to drive through into turn three for a shared heat.
The Aces were seriously unlucky in Heat 9 when Hougaard and Wright gated and looked set for a 5-1, only for Wright to puncture going into turn three and furiously coast to a standstill at the end of the first lap, Schlein and Wells gratefully accepting another 3-3.
After those two escapes, Bees raised their game with Kennett riding well to hold off Iversen in Heat 10 as Allen re-passed Parsons having almost been clattered off turn four - and the race at the front went right to the wire, with Kennett getting the verdict on the line.
Two points down on the night going into the interval, the match was turned on its head when Harris and Barker outgated Kasprzak in Heat 11 and rode superbly to give the Pole no chance of repeating his earlier passing moves.
And the momentum looked set to continue when Allen and Auty flew out of the start in Heat 12, only for things to go wrong on turn four when Allen dropped a chain, sending him into the fence with his rear wheel completely locked. Belle Vue took full advantage of the resultant re-start, Hougaard and Ward taking the first of the four 5-1s they required to complete an unlikely comeback.
Those aspirations, though, were quickly extinguished by the impressive Harris, who made another great start in between Iversen and Kasprzak to take Heat 13 under pressure from the Aces skipper, for the win which put Bees into the Final.
The match on the night remained close, and a four-way battle took place in Heat 14 with Kennett holding off Wright and Ward, and Auty doing all he could to get into a scoring position - twice moving alongside Ward only to find his way blocked.
It left Bees needing a 5-1 from the last race to win on the night, although the important work of the meeting had already been done, and the minor issue was resolved immediately as the tapes went up as Harris's clutch exploded and he had to push his bike away, which was a cruel ending after a performance which richly deserved a full maximum.
Iversen and Kasprzak duly completed a 5-1 over Kennett to put Belle Vue's lead on the night up to six points, but Bees had prevailed in the tie as a whole despite Jason Crump's first-leg maximum, and have therefore knocked the Aces out of the Cup in three of the last four seasons.
Lakeside await in the Final and Bees will need to do a good containing job at Purfleet on Friday if they are to repeat their Cup successes of 2006 and 2007, and ensure major silverware for a fifth successive season.
