COVENTRY were beaten 36-22 by Poole at Brandon on Monday in a meeting abandoned due to heavy rain after ten races.
The main talking point was whether the meeting should have got to that stage in worsening conditions, with the Buildbase Bees sending no riders out for what turned out to be the last ‘race’ of the night.
Promoter Mick Horton confirmed that in normal circumstances, due to the awful weather forecast, he would have taken similar action to Belle Vue and Wolverhampton and called the meeting off much earlier in the day.
As it was, the televised encounter with the Pirates went ahead on a super-slick surface which was actually dry at start-time as the rain which had been threatened all afternoon did not arrive at Brandon to any great effect.
That changed, however, shortly before start time with rain moving in, and conditions got steadily worse as the meeting progressed.
Although both Joonas Kylmakorpi and Chris Harris were unbeaten from their opening two rides before not contesting Heat 10, Bees suffered a spate of issues elsewhere in the team.
Jason Garrity broke the tapes in Heat 2, with the Pirates taking full advantage with a 5-1 in the re-run, and Garrity would then suffer two further disqualifications in Heats 8 and 9 as the conditions began to take effect.
Harris and Kylmakorpi levelled the early deficit in Heat 3 but Poole went back ahead through Davey Watt and surprise package Paul Starke in Heat 5, and Maciej Janowski managed to split Kylmakorpi and Danny King in Heat 6 despite a great effort by King.
But Hans Andersen span and fell on turn two in Heat 7 just as he looked set for a 5-1 with Harris, and the Pirates secured a 5-0 in the next race with Garrity coming to grief on turn two and King, who had been penalised 15 metres for exceeding the time allowance, suffering further bike problems on the start-line.
Garrity was then disqualified from Heat 9 after a tangle with Stuart Robson and Kyle Newman, with the meeting steward then decreeing that the racing should continue after discussions in the pits.
A 4-2 to Poole followed in the re-run followed by an uncontested 5-0 in Heat 10 before a swift decision was taken that conditions were, in fact, too bad to continue, and the result was declared.
Horton said: “I’m very disillusioned at the moment. A Coventry/Poole fixture should have been our biggest crowd of the season and a great advert for the sport.
“But for anybody who was there, and the people who turned up in that bad weather are heroes, that was not speedway at all.
“There’s no blame apportioned to Poole whatsoever, but I’m sure Poole would be the first to agree that conditions were not good.
“Understandably our riders were uncomfortable with the track, there were a couple of decisions that didn’t go our way, but it was clear that the track was not safe, and I don’t blame the riders for not going out in Heat 10.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 22: Joonas Kylmakorpi 6, Chris Harris 5+1, Danny King 4, Stuart Robson 3+1, Hans Andersen 2, Jason Garrity 2, James Sarjeant 0. POOLE 36: Davey Watt 8+1, Kyle Newman 7+1, Paul Starke 6+3, Chris Holder 6, Kacper Gomolski 4+1, Dakota North 3, Maciej Janowski 2.
BUILDBASE BEES 22 Hans Andersen 2 0 = 2 Stuart Robson 1* 0 2 = 3 Joonas Kylmakorpi 3 3 M = 6 Danny King 3 1 R = 4 Chris Harris 2* 3 M = 5+1 Jason Garrity 1 1 X X = 2 James Sarjeant 0 0 = 0
POOLE 36 Chris Holder 3 0 3 = 6 Davey Watt 0 3 3 2* = 8+1 Dakota North 1 2 = 3 Kacper Gomolski 2 1* 1 = 4+1 Maciej Janowski R 2 = 2 Paul Starke 2* 2* 2* = 6+3 Kyle Newman 3 1* 3 = 7+1
