COVENTRY suffered the frustration of a 43-47 defeat against Poole in a last-heat decider from an eventful Brandon season-opener on Friday.
The scores were level in the second-leg Elite Shield tie and the Buildbase Bees’ hopes were high as Krzysztof Kasprzak and Chris Harris had both delivered outstanding performances, dropping just one point between them to that stage.
But it was former Coventry man Hans Andersen who had the last laugh on the night as he blocked out the challenge of the Bees riders allowing team-mate Krzysztof Buczkowski to go clear.
The Pirates arrived with a 22-point first leg advantage, although they were forced to use rider replacement for No.1 Chris Holder, who was taken ill shortly before the meeting.
And just as at Wimborne Road on Wednesday it was the Bees who raced into an early six-point lead, with Kasprzak an emphatic winner in his first ride for the club this season in Heat 1, backed up by Jason Garrity for a 5-1 over Buczkowski and Brady Kurtz.
Josh Bates notched an impressive win in the reserves’ race, and after Harris had missed out to Davey Watt despite a hard chase in Heat 3, there was drama in the next when Andersen was disqualified for a move on Bates on the fourth bend with resulted in both riders coming to grief.
Bates picked himself up to combine with a 5-1 with Kacper Woryna in the re-run, with the young Pole again acquitting himself well in his first Brandon appearance.
Poole pegged the gap when Garrity was harshly disqualified from Heat 5 as he came down when barged aside by Kurtz, and the scores were all-square after six as Kurtz overhauled a down-on-power Danny King for third place.
Bees resumed the lead with maximum points in Heat 7, Kasprzak dominating from the start and Harris switching inside Andersen into the second lap, but two successive Poole 5-1s followed with Adam Ellis again proving a key man at reserve and Andersen recovering from a near-fall on the second lap of Heat 9 to partner Kyle Newman to maximum points.
Harris produced a moment of magic to round both Kurtz and Andersen to win Heat 10 but with King mired at the back the four-point deficit was retained, as it was after the eleventh, which saw Kasprzak beat Davey Watt into the third bend but Garrity be squeezed out by Buczkowski.
Back came the Bees in a frantic Heat 12 as James Sarjeant popped up with a welcome race victory, with Newman splitting the home combination in a hard battle with Bates for second place – and the turnaround appeared complete in Heat 13 as Kasprzak made it four wins and Harris won a spectacular tussle with Buczkowski, the two re-passing on two occasions before Harris came through off the last bend.
King finally hit the front in Heat 14 but was moved aside by Andersen going into the second lap, with third place for Watt levelling matters again at 42-42.
With choice of gates and their top two in fine form, Bees appeared favourites for Heat 15 – but that was before Buczkowski, not deemed an Elite League ‘heat leader’ on the winter gradings, conjured a stellar start from the outside, whilst Andersen fended off everything Kasprzak could throw at him.
That denied the Bees a winning start at home against the club tipped to carry all before them in 2016 – but the serious business of gathering league points gets underway against Leicester on Good Friday.
Manager Gary Havelock said: “It was disappointing not to win our home leg, but if there’s a time for a few problems I’d rather have them now rather than before the important league matches start.
“There were positives to take out of it, KK was looking pretty sensational, and Bomber too. Josh’s first couple of rides were fantastic, he beat Kyle Newman in Heat 2 who is probably the best fast-tracker in the league and he beat him by a distance.
“A couple of boys do have things to sort out, but I’m not overly worried. I think once the league racing starts, the Premier League will get going as well and they’ll get more meetings under their belt.â€
ELITE SHIELD, 2nd leg COVENTRY 43: Krzysztof Kasprzak 13, Chris Harris 9+2, Josh Bates 7, Kacper Woryna 5+1, James Sajeant 4, Jason Garrity 3+1, Danny King 2 POOLE 47: Hans Andersen 11+1, Krzysztof Buczkowski 9+1, Brady Kurtz 8+2, Kyle Newman 7+1, Adam Ellis 6+2, Davey Watt 6, Chris Holder r/r Poole win 103-77 on aggregate.
BUILDBASE BEES 43 Krzysztof Kasprzak 3 3 3 3 1 = 13 Jason Garrity 2* X 1 0 = 3+1 Danny King 0 0 0 2 = 2 Kacper Woryna 2* 2 1 0 = 5+1 Chris Harris 2 2* 3 2* 0 = 9+2 James Sarjeant 0 1 0 3 = 4 Josh Bates 3 3 0 1 = 7
POOLE 47 Chris Holder Rider Replacement Brady Kurtz 1 2* 1 3 1* = 8+2 Davey Watt 3 0 2 R 1 = 6 Hans Andersen X 1 3 2 3 2* = 11+1 Krzysztof Buczkowski 0 1 3 1* 1 3 = 9+1 Adam Ellis 1* 3 2* 0 = 6+2 Kyle Newman 2 1 2* 2 = 7+1
