COVENTRY Storm restricted Kent to just a five-point lead from the first leg of their National League play-off semi-final on Monday night.
In a real meeting of two halves, the Kings raced into a twelve point lead after Heat 8 but the City Gearboxes Storm fought back strongly on a super-slick Central Park track and had clawed the scores back to 49-44 by the conclusion.
It means they will feel confident of overturning that deficit when the sides meet again in the second leg at Brandon on Friday October 3.
Gating was all-important and the home side performed better in that respect early on, with the likes of Aaron Baseby and impressive reserve Danny Ayres frustrating the Storm with a series of wins.
Ayres combined with Jason Garrad for the only 5-1 in the meeting in Heat 2, although the start looked far from satisfactory, and skipper James Sarjeant was the Storm’s only winner in the first eight races with a determined effort to get the better of Baseby in Heat 6.
But with the score at 30-18 after a fine ride by Baseby to pass Luke Priest in Heat 8, the tide began to turn when Sarjeant won Heat 9 for double-points, and he then worked hard for third place in Heat 10 as Dan Greenwood took a vital victory.
Another Storm 4-2 followed as Oliver Greenwood won Heat 11, and although the Kings re-extended their lead to seven in the next it could have been worse as Dan Greenwood pounced on a turn-four error by David Mason to split the home duo.
Sarjeant came to grief on a crowded third bend in Heat 13 as he and Oliver Greenwood both tried to close out Benji Compton, but Greenwood won the re-run for a 3-3.
In Heat 14 Dan Greenwood superbly led Ben Morley whilst Ayres and Martin Knuckey had a ding-dong scrap for third place, which ended in the Kent man taking his rival down on the third lap. Referee Chris Gary disqualified Ayres but surprisingly ordered a re-run, before Greenwood ensured justice was done by again getting the better of Morley up-front.
Heat 15 was shared as Simon Lambert took victory for the Kings, but the Greenwood duo managed to out-manoevre Morley on the first lap to keep the margin at just five points.
Storm boss Laurence Rogere said: “We’ll take that, the boys certainly knuckled down in the second half of the meeting and we found our gating gloves again which we didn’t have in the first half!
“All credit to the boys for bouncing back and getting it back to five points, and we very much hope that’s do-able on October 3.â€
NATIONAL LEAGUE PLAY OFF SEMI FINAL, 1st leg KENT 49: Simon Lambert 10+1, Aaron Baseby 10, Ben Morley 10. Danny Ayres 10, Benji Compton 3+1, David Mason 3+1, Jason Garrad 3+1 COVENTRY 44: Dan Greenwood 13+1, James Sarjeant 12, Oliver Greenwood 11+1, Luke Priest 6+1, Martin Knuckey 2, Ryan Terry-Daley 0, Ellis Perks 0, Stefan Nielsen r/r
Picture: ELIZABETH LESLIE
KENT 49 Benji Compton 0 1* 2 = 3+1 Aaron Baseby 3 2 3 2 = 10 David Mason 0 1 1* 1 = 3+1 Ben Morley 3 3 2 2 0 = 10 Simon Lambert 1 3 2 1* 3 = 10+1 Jason Garrad 2* 1 0 = 3+1 Danny Ayres 3 3 1 0 3 X = 10
CITY GEARBOXES STORM 44 Oliver Greenwood 1* 2 3 3 2 = 11+1 Luke Priest 2 1* 0 2 1 = 6+1 Stefan Nielsen Rider Replacement Dan Greenwood 2 2 3 2 3 1* =13+1 James Sarjeant 2 3 6^ 1 X = 12 Ryan Terry-Daley 0 0 0 0 = 0 Martin Knuckey 1 0 T R 1 = 2 Ellis Perks 0 = 0
