COVENTRY rounded off their home Elite League 'A' programme with victory in a meeting which will surely go down as the most extraordinary of the season.
Swindon's visits to Brandon seem to frequently involve the Robins building up a good early lead before being reeled back in, but never before have the margins been quite so outrageous - and just as in the 2007 Knockout Cup Final, both teams used a tactical ride!
At 5-18 down after four races, all the momentum from the recent team changes and wins on Thursday and Friday could well have drained out of Coventry; at 42-32 after twelve it would have been Swindon trying to work out what had gone wrong - and then after a Robins' rally, the match ended with Chris Harris producing the start of his life to win Heat 15.
It would be hard to imagine a more disastrous start to a meeting with the Robins serene in the early stages and Bees generally left trailing and crashing. Even Heat 1 could have been a Swindon 5-1 as Leigh Adams and Morten Risager led away, only for a hard-charging Harris to make it around the outside of Risager on lap three to at least turn in into a 4-2 - but that was just the beginning of Coventry's problems.
Thomas H Jonasson and Justin Sedgmen both stormed from the start in Heat 2 leaving the Bees chasing, and the Robins would have been frustrated when Josh Auty came to grief on turn four - almost a case of history repeating after Sedgmen had fallen in the reverse fixture when the Bees themselves held a 5-1, with Cory Gathercole winning the re-run.
This time, though, it got even better for Swindon with their riders again getting out in front of Przemyslaw Pawlicki, who became the second Coventry reserve to come down, this time on the third lap in a virtually identical position to Auty, handing Swindon a 5-0 with the race awarded.
In Heat 3, the Coventry riders made the start for the first time but as Grzegorz Zengota went square in turn one, Lewis Bridger spun in an unconnected incident and fell, with Mads Korneliussen laying his machine down smartly to prevent serious damage to either rider. The Dane then took control of the re-run as Kennett couldn't repeat his earlier start, whilst Zengota re-mounted for third place after coming down on lap three.
So Bees already faced a nine-point deficit, but that became a disastrous thirteen with a 1-5 concession in Heat 4 as Krzysztof Kasprzak missed out from the outside with Simon Stead keeping up his great run of form to win, backed all the way by Jonasson - and amidst plenty of head-scratching, it was 5-18.
The Bees riders disappeared behind the pits in an attempt to work out exactly what was going wrong, and at least Heat 5 saw them share a race even if there was no answer to Adams - Kennett and Bridger safe in second and third even before Risager fell spectacularly on the second bend of lap three and did well to clear the track.
And then, just as in that epic KO Cup Final in which Alun Rossiter was the Swindon manager, it was tactical ride time in Heat 6 and although Harris didn't appear to get off the line all that well, he still drove to the bend and made it ahead of Stead on the inside - and, better still for the Bees, Ben Barker flew around the outside to set up the 8-1 which seemed an absolute necessity given the state of the meeting.
What they needed to do next was to get into the Swindon middle-order pairing, and they did just that in Heat 7 with Kasprzak nailing the start this time and being joined by an inspired Pawlicki, who cleverly cut back off turn two as his team-mate went wide, with Korneliussen then suffering mechanical failure as he chased.
That was good from Pawlicki, but what happened next in Heat 8 was simply stunning as, with the action all taking place behind clear leader Barker, Pawlicki rode a completely different line to the Robins which took him past first Risager and then, a lap later, Jonasson, who had actually made the best start of all only for Barker to go inside him off the second bend. Pawlicki earned a standing ovation and out of absolutely nowhere, Bees had turned 8-21 into 26-24!
But there was still a long way to go, and Stead was a tapes-to-flag winner of Heat 9 ahead of Kennett, with Swindon taking a 4-2 to level the scores as Bridger lifted on turn two and went to the back behind Sedgmen.
Just as on Friday when they were frustrated by Cameron Woodward, Bees went into Heat 10 looking for a 5-1, and it could have been bad news again when Harris was outgated, but Barker rode a superb first two bends to take Korneliussen wide, with Harris reading the move and cutting back to join his team-mate to put the home side four points clear.
It got even better for Bees in Heat 11 with Kasprzak outgating Adams and surviving a nervous moment on the second lap to pull clear, and great credit to Auty after a nightmare meeting for catching and passing Jonasson on the third lap to give Bees daylight for the first time, six points clear.
There was a certain sense of inevitability about the Coventry 5-1 in Heat 12, even though it was far from straightforward with Pawlicki and Kennett not quite on the same wavelength on turn four resulting in Kennett having to re-pass Zengota, but with Bees now ten points up it was Swindon's turn to use the tactical ride.
Not surprisingly, it was Adams who took the black and white in Heat 13 and made it work, the captain and Stead surging away from the start and briefly looking set to repeat Coventry's Heat 6 5-1 - but Harris was having none of it, and he blasted around the outside at the end of lap one to split the pairing and limit the Robins to a 7-2.
Heat 14 looked a tough one to call on paper but those who expected a further twist weren't disappointed as key man Pawlicki suffered ignition trouble away from the start, and disaster was only just averted when the Robins riders got too close to each other on turn two allowing Bridger the opportunity to at least split Korneliussen and Jonasson - but even so, Swindon had put themselves back in with a chance, 46-43 down with one race to go.
With Barker nominated to partner Harris and Swindon going with Adams and Stead, the Robins gained the initial advantage by winning the toss, although perhaps slightly surprisingly they elected for one and three despite having come off two and four well in Heat 13. This time, though, it was Harris off gate two, and Harris who got everything absolutely right in the run to the first bend, and only a cruel mechanical failure was going to stop him from that point on.
Thankfully that didn't happen and although Barker's attempts to pass Stead proved unsuccessful, the 3-3 was enough for Coventry to win 49-46 at the end of the most dramatic of meetings.
BUILDBASE BEES 49 Chris Harris 2 6^ 3 2 3 = 16 Ben Barker 0 2* 3 2* 0 = 7+2 Edward Kennett 2 2 2 2* = 8+1 Lewis Bridger X 1* R 2 = 3+1 Krzysztof Kasprzak 1 3 3 0 = 7 Josh Auty X 0 1 = 1 Przemyslaw Pawlicki F 2* 2* 3 R = 7+2
