COVENTRY fought out an exciting draw with King’s Lynn at the Norfolk Arena to move up a place to eighth in the Elite League table.
Remarkably, it was the Buildbase Bees’ third draw in their last six fixtures, and it still gives them a chance of finishing above the Stars in the final standings if they take big wins from their final two matches.
The first of those is at home to Peterborough on Wednesday, a meeting which has assumed extra significance by the fact that the Panthers must at least draw the meeting to move into the play-off places.
Bees battled hard throughout to gain their two match points in East Anglia, with skipper Chris Harris leading from the front and the rest of the top order all chipping in with useful contributions.
Harris won his first two rides, including against the Stars’ in-form No.1 Niels-Kristian Iversen in Heat 1, although Bees faced an early deficit after conceding maximum points in the reserves’ race.
But they quickly worked their way back in with a fine ride by Scott Nicholls to win Heat 4, and Harris’s overtake on Lynn guest Ryan Fisher in the next race brought the scores level.
Bees briefly led thanks to a 4-2 from Edward Kennett and Kenni Larsen in Heat 7 but the match was turned around by three consecutive 4-2s to the home side which left Bees 28-32 down with five heats to go.
Coventry’s comeback began in Heat 12 with an excellent 5-1 from Kennett and Michal Szczepaniak, both of whom flew past Mads Korneliussen on the first lap, and then Harris overhauled Daniel Nermark to win Heat 13 with Nicholls keeping Iversen at the back in a terrific battle for a point.
That put Bees in front at 40-38 but Heat 14 saw a spectacular first-bend pile-up with Fisher launched into the air after clipping Larsen. With all four allowed back for the re-run and Fisher remarkably suffering no injury, the American held Larsen at bay with Kevin Wolbert third for a 4-2 to leave the scores level.
Iversen took charge of the decider with a strong first lap against Harris and Nicholls, but with Nermark at the back the Bees had secured two match points with the Stars taking one at the end of a highly entertaining meeting.
KING’S LYNN 45: Niels-Kristian Iversen 11, Daniel Nermark 10, Ryan Fisher 7+1, Kevin Wolbert 6+2, Ulrich Ostergaard 6, Mads Korneliussen 5, Mateusz Szczepaniak r/r.
BUILDBASE BEES 45: Chris Harris 13, Scott Nicholls 9+1, Kenni Larsen 8, Michal Szczepaniak 7+2, Edward Kennett 6, Josef Franc 1+1, Aaron Summers 1.
