COVENTRY Storm’s threadbare team performed with great credit in Monday’s 37-53 National League defeat at Kent.
The City Gearboxes Storm travelled to Central Park in the highly unusual position of being without four of their top five riders which left them nowhere near their normal strength.
However, the riders on duty certainly made a match of it and were in contention to even snatch a point until the final two races.
Of the Storm regulars, Dan Greenwood led the way with three race wins, whilst reserves Ryan Terry-Daley and Martin Knuckey both scored solidly and collected a 5-1 in Heat 2.
Guest Brendan Johnson joined Greenwood in double figures as the Storm remained in contention with the gap at only eight points with four heats to go.
The home side provided the majority of race wins in the second half of the meeting, although a last-heat 5-1 from David Mason and Ben Morley meant the final margin was in no way reflective of the way the meeting had gone.
Storm boss Laurence Rogers said: “Overall I was very proud of the boys we had, and you can’t knock any of them for effort.
“(Kent promoter) Len Silver came and shook hands afterwards and told me to thank our boys for putting on such a good show.
“It’s a shame because I think if we’d had just one of the top boys there we would have had enough to win it, and Sarj (James Sarjeant) actually came along to watch which was amazing for him to make an effort like that.â€
The Storm now have nearly four weeks without a fixture scheduled, which should hopefully allow time for Sarjeant, Oliver Greenwood and Luke Crang to recover from their respective injuries, whilst Stefan Nielsen was due back in action on Monday – although his meeting for Belle Vue was ironically rained off!
KENT 53: David Mason 13+1, Ben Morley 13+1, Ben Hopwood 8+1, Aaron Baseby 7, Luke Chessell 6+1, Danny Ayres 5+2, Luke Harris 1+1. COVENTRY 37: Dan Greenwood 12, Brendan Johnson 10, Ryan Terry-Daley 8+1, Martin Knuckey 5+1, Sam Chapman 2+2, Adam Sheppard 0, Oliver Greenwood R/R.
KENT 53 Ben Hopwood 2* 2 3 1 = 8+1 Aaron Baseby 3 0 3 1 = 7 David Mason 2 2* 3 3 3 = 13+1 Luke Chessell 1* 3 0 2 = 6+1 Ben Morley 3 2 3 3 2* = 13+1 Luke Harris 0 1* R = 1+1 Danny Ayres 1 2* 0 1 1* = 6+2
CITY GEARBOXES STORM 37 Oliver Greenwood Rider Replacement Sam Chapman X 0 1* 1* = 2+2 Adam Sheppard 0 0 0 = 0 Dan Greenwood 1 3 3 2 3 R = 12 Brendan Johnson 0 3 2 2 2 1 = 10 Ryan Terry-Daley 3 1 1 1* 2 F = 8+1 Martin Knuckey 2* 1 2 R R = 5+1
