THE Buildbase Bees would undoubtedly have taken five points from the week had they been offered beforehand - but there was still an element of frustration that they couldn't take all three at home to Ipswich.
Prime reason for that frustration was the fact that the point was enough to keep Ipswich off the bottom of the table and leave the Bees there, and the Witches had taken the last two races by a 10-3 margin.
Even allowing for that, Coventry were dominant enough in this meeting to have been further that 13 points ahead going into Heat 14, yet on several occasions they couldn't quite finish off promising race positions to their maximum advantage.
It's still a huge step forward from the early stages of the season, however, and most noticeable is that Bees are now gating with or ahead of their rivals on a more consistent basis, and that gives them much more of a platform to build on.
This was an eventful meeting, with referee Mick Posselwhite taking centre stage on a number of occasions with several decisions which caused the phone-line from pits to box to be well used.
For those who thought the Heat 1 clash of the Coventry assets would come down to Chris Harris against Scott Nicholls, they had forgotten all about Ben Barker who gated and went into the distance as Harris, who had gated on a 5-1 with his team-mate, lifted disastrously on the back straight and was quickly reversed to the back of the race.
Bees did go in front in Heat 2 with Richard Sweetman taking the race in dominant fashion with Filip Sitera third, and they added another 4-2 in the next as Kennett hit the front and was initially joined by Aaron Summers. Daniel King split the pairing at the end of the second lap as Summers slid wide, but the No.8 - standing in due to the Przemyslaw Pawlicki saga - held on for third place ahead of Claus Vissing.
The fourth race was shared as Robert Miskowiak, always a fast gater at Brandon, held Rory Schlein at bay, but the Witches were then under pressure when Nicholls touched the tapes in Heat 5 after what had appeared a surprisingly long hold at the start.
Kennett took the win in the re-run, forcing Olly Allen wide on the second bend, but Allen responded to regain second place from Summers going into lap two, and Nicholls then grabbed a point from Summers on the exit of turn two on lap four.
Harris took advantage of an early battle between Barker and Miskowiak to cut through for a win in Heat 6, Barker's late challenge seeing him just unable to pass the Pole for second place, and that left Bees 21-15 up.
Sweetman demonstrated his growing Elite League presence by shunting King aside on the first turn of Heat 7, and he seemed certain to link up with Schlein for a 5-1 with Vissing falling on the fourth bend and only just clearing the track in time. However, Sweetman suffered a cut-out problem on the last bend and that allowed King to take second spot and restrict Bees to a 4-2.
Heat 8 saw the home side go further ahead with Barker riding a strong first turn to get the better of Allen with Sitera third again, and that led to the first tactical ride deployment, which proved positive for the Witches as Miskowiak took the full six points from Heat 9.
With Harris and Barker out in the next race, Bees were hopeful of rebuilding their lead but King shot off from gate two and then held the combined challenge of the Coventry riders at bay, and Ipswich therefore went into the last five heats seven points adrift.
But Heat 11 appeared to be a crucial turning point in the meeting as Schlein, from gate two, outgated Nicholls and also got the better of Allen in the first turn, who lifted and allowed space for Sweetman to take third place - and a nine point lead with a favourable Heat 12 following looked to have Bees in full control.
Kennett duly gated and led by a distance, and Sitera bravely moved between Stachyra and Vissing as the riders went into turn three. Sitera got half a bike in front before Vissing came down, seemingly with no contact, and Bees were far from happy when the blue disqualification light came on.
The re-run was also a talking point, firstly with Vissing sent back 15 metres for touching the tapes, and as he shifted to gate four the riders on the inside maintained position, with Stachyra on the inside - so Ipswich effectively went off one and four! As it turned out, Kennett took the win to leave the scores at 42-33 with three heats to go.
If Bees were unhappy about the Sitera decision, Heat 13 provided Ipswich with an incident to contest as Nicholls went down going into the first bend after clear contact with Schlein. But as the red lights did not come on, it became clear that the expected all-four decision was not going to occur, and a furious Nicholls was disqualified with Harris and Schlein banking a maximum 5-1 against Miskowiak in the re-run.
That left the Witches needing to use King for a tactical ride in Heat 14, clearly hoping for at least a 6-3 to keep in the hunt for a point. What they probably weren't expecting was a 5-2 because after Sweetman made the best start, Stachyra produced easily his best ride of the night to go through a narrow gap into turn three, and there were then some scary moments as Sweetman tried to challenge. Stachyra held on, King took two points for the tactical ride, and for Ipswich it was a 5-1 required from the last race for a point.
Bees won the toss and took one and three, reasoning that gate four had produced very little success all evening - but Nicholls made it work as he surged from the start, and Miskowiak also leapt away from gate two to leave Schlein and Kennett, who had dropped just two points between them all evening, chasing, and although Schlein got close, he couldn't get through.
So the upward progress as far as the league table is concerned will have to wait - but the encouraging form of the week continues, although Bees clearly have a major matter to resolve before they next go into action.
