COVENTRY were eventually left with nothing after a battling performance at the East of England Showground in which for long spells they threatened to take at least a point back to Brandon.
The Buildbase Bees never led, but trailed by just two to four points for the majority of the Good Friday morning meeting, only to concede three 5-1s and a 4-2 in the last four races.
They were reduced to six riders within yards of the start as Christian Hefenbrock crashed heavily on the first turn of Heat 1, but the team adapted well to the slippery early conditions, only for the track to come more to the home side later on.
And with a couple of the Panthers' higher-profile riders suffering troubled meetings, it was reserve duo Krzysztof Buczkowski and Joel Parsons who were the Peterborough heroes, collecting 18 (paid 19) between them including four race wins.
The Bees' heat-leaders were all very much on the pace and prevented Kenneth Bjerre from winning a race until his final outing, but the Panthers were very well led by Niels-Kristian Iversen, whose only dropped points came in Heat 13 which was arguably the race of the day.
The meeting got off to an unfortunate start, with Harris launching off gate four in Heat 1 and being well clear into the first bend - but there was congestion behind and Hefenbrock was sent spearing into the fence at full speed, with his bike clearing the air-barrier.
A lengthy delay ensued whilst the German was attended to and the fence repairs were made, before Harris again made the start in the re-run only to lift out of turn two and allow Iversen the chance to come through on the inside - whilst at the same time, Hefenbrock's replacement Josh Auty performed a similar move on Lewis Bridger to take a good third place.
Auty was out again in Heat 2 and again using the inside route into turn three to good effect to split up the faster-gating Panthers' reserves, but there was no stopping Parsons up-front with the Australian clearly carrying far more confidence than during his spell with the Bees early last season.
Bees levelled in Heat 3, a race which required another re-start as Ulrich Ostergaard came to grief after clipping Edward Kennett's rear wheel coming off the second bend. The re-run saw Kennett and Ben Barker out-gate Bjerre, who shot between the pair into the third bend but was unable to prevent Kennett from racing clear to win.
The Panthers received a stroke of fortune in Heat 4 when second-placed Rory Schlein shed a chain on the fourth bend, which allowed Troy Batchelor to come through and partner Buczkowski to the first 5-1 of the day.
The margin remained unchanged during two shared races which followed, first with Harris quickly going clear in Heat 5 as Bjerre went too wide going into the first bend, and then in Heat 6 Iversen held back the challenge of Schlein as Bridger suffered further problems.
Heat 7 produced a surprise outcome with Batchelor relegated to last place but Parsons preventing 5-1 damage as far as the Panthers were concerned - and as Batchelor tried to switch lines to pass Barker on lap three, he almost collected the Bees rider and came to a sudden stop on the back straight leaving him point-less from the race.
That 4-2 narrowed the gap to four points, and Bees appeared set to level the scores as Sitera led the first three laps of Heat 8, only to slide wide on the exit of turn four and give Buczkowski the chance to make his move on the inside, as Bridger completed a remarkably scoreless meeting at the back.
With track conditions clearly improving, Schlein rode to the fastest time so far ahead of Bjerre in a shared Heat 9, whilst Iversen showed a touch of class in matching that effort in the next race, appearing to be in no man's land on the outside of turn one only to switch for the inside and move past team-mate Buczkowski, Kennett and Barker to hit the front.
Still Bees were just two down, but Heat 11 saw a fired-up Batchelor take Harris wide on the first bend, leaving the Coventry captain with a fight on his hands just to reel in and pass Parsons, which he achieved going into the third lap.
Heat 12 was the race in which the home side pulled clear for the first time, Buczkowski completing an impressive performance with his third win, and Ostergaard backing him up for a 5-1 over Kennett and Sitera to leave the Panthers 40-32 up and looking set for all three points.
But the Bees came storming back in a fine Heat 13, which was quickly reduced to a three-man race with Batchelor pulling out early on. Iversen, meanwhile, seemed set to complete another third-to-first move as he surged inside Harris into turn three - but Harris remained on the outside, and as Iversen lifted out of turn four, Harris showed great bravery to maintain his line and squeeze back into the lead. Iversen, meanwhile, was caught by Schlein and when the Dane lost momentum again at the start of the last lap Schlein took his chance to go into second place into the last bend and give the visitors renewed hope of taking at least a point.
However, those hopes took a dent in Heat 14 as Parsons once again proved to be a major spoiler, this time teaming up with Bjerre for maximum points over Barker and Auty to leave Harris and Schlein with it all to do in the last race.
Bees needed at least a 4-2 from Heat 15 to move back to within six points, but it was all over almost immediately with Schlein losing power into the first bend, although Iversen rode four perfect laps to hold Harris at bay in any case, completing the meeting in the fastest time of the day.
It was great credit to the riders of both teams that an entertaining meeting still took place despite the wet conditions early on, and Bees will take some encouragement from their display - especially given the nature of some of their defeats at the Showground during the 2009 season.
PETERBOROUGH 50 Niels-Kristian Iversen 3 3 3 1 3 = 13 Lewis Bridger R 0 0 = 0 Ulrich Ostergaard X 1* 1* 2* = 4+3 Kenneth Bjerre 2 2 2 3 1 = 10 Troy Batchelor 2* 0 3 R = 5+1 Joel Parsons 3 2 1 2* = 8+1 Krzysztof Buczkowski 1 3 3 0 3 = 10
BUILDBASE BEES 40 Chris Harris 2 3 2 3 2 = 13 Christian Hefenbrock N = 0 Edward Kennett 3 3 1* 1 = 8+1 Ben Barker 1 1 2 1 = 5 Rory Schlein R 2 3 2* 0 = 7+1 Josh Auty 1* 2 1* 1* 0 0 0 = 5+3 Filip Sitera 0 1 F 2 0 = 3
