COVENTRY’S stirring fightback proved to be just in vain as they slipped to an agonising 46-47 defeat against King’s Lynn in a Brandon thriller on Monday.
The Builbase Bees recovered from an almost impossible position as they trailed by 16 points after just five races in one of the worst starts to a meeting imaginable.
Incredibly they had cut the gap to a single point going into the final two heats, before Troy Batchelor picked up the results the Stars needed to edge them over the line.
Bees could certainly point to Heat 8 when a 5-1 was turned into a 1-5 as being a critical race in delaying their comeback, but the reality was that after conceding three 5-1s and two 4-2s in the first five races, they had given themselves little room for error.
King’s Lynn riders were far sharper from the starts early on with their reserves outstanding, there were mechanical problems for Chris Harris dropping him to the back of Heat 3, and James Sarjeant retired from the next race.
At 7-23 down it looked a forlorn task but Josh Bates injected some spirit into proceedings by holding Niels-Kristian Iversen at bay for two laps in Heat 6, and Bees then collected a vital 8-1 from Heat 7 when Harris went for double points.
It wasn’t exactly done from the start as the Bees skipper made it to the front going into turn three, with Krzysztof Kasprzak then relieving Rory Schlein of second place midway through the race.
That gave Bees some headway and they looked set to continue in that vein when Bates and Sarjeant hit the front in Heat 8, only for Sarjeant to lift and fall on the fourth bend – and frustratingly the race was stopped just as he was clearing the track.
The Stars took full advantage of their second chance in the re-run as Kyle Howarth and Nikolaj Busk-Jakobsen raced to maximum points to leave Bees 13 points down and with only seven races to claw it back.
Ben Barker marked his return to Coventry colours with a battling effort to move Batchelor aside and win Heat 9, and Harris and Danny King then eclipsed Iversen in a frantic Heat 10 battle in which Howarth had been in the mix early on.
Kasprzak and Barker made it back-to-back 5-1s, this time against Schlein and Batchelor in Heat 11, and all of a sudden the gap was down to five points albeit the Stars looked very strong in Heat 12.
But that race went Coventry’s way as well with Kacper Woryna passing Jakobsen going into the last lap with Lewis Rose having come to grief earlier, and another 4-2 followed in Heat 13 with Iversen having to work overtime to maintain second place ahead of Harris.
At 40-41 it was all to ride for but the Stars grabbed a crucial result in Heat 14 as King was mired at the back, although Bates at least split Batchelor and Schlein to keep Bees in with a chance, passing Schlein on the inside.
Nothing less than a 5-1 in Heat 15 would do for Coventry, and their chances increased when Iversen spun on the first bend and came to grief spectacularly, with Kasprzak hitting the fence on turn two after taking avoiding action.
Both riders fortunately walked away, and that left Kasprzak and Harris facing just Batchelor – but it was the King’s Lynn rider who made the start from the inside, and although Kasprzak finally surged around him on the last lap for a terrific win, there wasn’t quite enough time for Harris to follow him through, leaving Bees a solitary, frustrating point short.
Coventry promoter Mick Horton said: “It was a fantastic meeting, right out of the top drawer and credit to both teams for giving it 100 per cent.
“We started terribly, absolutely appallingly, but what a recovery from our team, and we were just unlucky in the end.
“I couldn’t understand why the referee had put the red lights on so quickly (in Heat 8) because they were only on the back straight and Sarj was coming off the track on the turn, so I think that was a big mistake which cost us and we ended up getting a 5-1 against.
“The riders gave it 100 per cent, as they do every week for the Bees, and there are some positives to take from it.â€
COVENTRY 46: Krzysztof Kasprzak 13+1, Chris Harris 10+1, Ben Barker 6+1, Danny King 6+1, Josh Bates 6, Kacper Woryna 4, James Sarjeant 1. KING’S LYNN 47: Niels-Kristian Iversen 12, Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen 10+1, Troy Batchelor 9+1, Lewis Rose 7+1, Kyle Howarth 5+2, Rory Schlein 4, Robert Lambert R/R.
