COVENTRY moved to the top of their National Trophy section with an emphatic 59-31 away win at Buxton on Sunday.
The home side had an unbeaten rider in No.1 Ben Wilson, who won each of his four outings, but the Europress Bees were the stronger all-round side by a distance as they cruised to victory.
In fact, the visitors recorded just one last place all afternoon – and that came in the very first race when guest No.1 Tom Perry suffered mechanical trouble when in second spot.
Other than that, there were no pickings for the Buxton lower-order as the Bees dominated in that department.
Top-scorer was a very impressive Luke Ruddick, who won four of his five outings including a deserved nomination for and victory in Heat 15.
Luke Harris hit double figures for the first time this season, skipper Jon Armstrong dropped just one point from four rides and Perry recovered from Heat 1 to score eight from his remaining three outings.
The Hitmen’s brief early lead was overturned by reserves Jamie Halder and Ryan MacDonald, who had much the better of their counterparts and recorded a 5-1 in Heat 2 – backed up by Ruddick and Armstrong in the next race over home captain Tom Woolley.
The next maximum came courtesy of Perry and Harris – team-mates at Cradley last season – in Heat 5 to put the Bees ten points up, and successive 5-1s in Heats 7 and 8 put Coventry into a massive 33-15 lead.
Connor Coles had won his first race for the Hitmen but almost fell in his second as he tried to pass Armstrong, whilst Harris and MacDonald recorded a clear success in the eighth.
Two shared heats followed as the Hitmen stemmed the tide with race wins for Woolley and Wilson, but the Perry/Harris combination saw off Coles in Heat 11, and a 4-2 followed in Heat 12 with Armstrong getting the better of Woolley.
Bees led 51-27 with two races to go and edged two further 4-2s with MacDonald passing Lewis Whitmore for third place being Ruddick in Heat 14 – and Ruddick was successful again in the last race with Coles coming to grief as the Hitmen did not field top scorer Wilson.
Bees captain Armstrong said: “All of the lads rode really well, everybody chipped in, and this is a difficult place to come – it is quite a tricky track.
“But it was a convincing win for us. We had a strong guest in Tom, but Connor Mountain would be been good as well because he’s on fire at the moment.
“I go okay around here and Luke Ruddick rode really well – they all did, so the team is shaping up quite nicely.
“And paid-eleven isn’t bad for an old boy either – it’s early doors at the moment, and I want to be there at the business end!â€
BUXTON 31: Ben Wilson 12, Tom Woolley 11, Connor Coles 5, Corban Pavitt 2, Kieran Douglas 1, Lewis Whitmore 0, Sam Woolley (no.8) 0, David Wallinger r/r. COVENTRY 59: Luke Ruddick 13+1, Luke Harris 10+2, Jon Armstrong 9+2, Tom Perry 8, Danny Phillips 7+1, Ryan MacDonald 6+3, Jamie Halder 6+2.
