COVENTRY went down to a 53-37 defeat at Birmingham at Perry Barr to give the Brummies a quick-fire National Trophy double.
The final scoreline in no way reflected the quality of the racing, or the efforts of the Europress Bees who were very much in contention until the closing stages.
But they had no answer to an outstanding Danyon Hume, who scored a 15-point maximum for the Brummies despite the considerable efforts of Connor Mountain to stop him in their late-meeting clashes.
The top-end strength of the Brummies left Bees restricted to three heat wins, all of which came in the opening five races.
And their hopes of an upset were well and truly alive when Danny Phillips and Luke Ruddick held off the challenge of Jack Parkinson-Blackburn in Heat 3 to take Coventry into an early 12-6 lead.
Mountain won his first two rides, getting the better of Tom Bacon in Heat 1 and Parkinson-Blackburn in Heat 5, but a 5-1 from Hume and key reserve Leon Flint in the previous race had brought the Brummies back into contention.
The scores were level at the halfway stage with Hume passing Ruddick to win Heat 7, but the home side took the lead for the first time in Heat 8 when Flint was partnered by Layne Cupitt to a 5-1, with the Bees’ Luke Harris having suffered engine failure in his previous outing.
Phillips came to grief in Heat 10, locking up on turn 2 with Cupitt laying his machine down in avoidance, and the Brummies took a 4-2 in the re-run as Bacon headed Ruddick.
Mountain did everything but pass Hume in a shared Heat 11 but the home man held on down to the line, whilst a dramatic first lap of Heat 12 saw Ruddick fly past Parkinson-Blackburn and Flint only to be re-passed by Parkinson-Blackburn off turn four.
More good action followed with Mountain slipping inside Bacon off turn two in Heat 13 but again just being unable to get on terms with Hume – and the consecutive 4-2s put the Brummies ten points up.
The meeting was done and dusted with another Birmingham 4-2 in Heat 14, Phillips passing Callum Walker for second place, and the final race saw a Brummies maximum with Hume on the outside and Bacon on the inside combining to again shut out the efforts of Mountain.
Coventry boss Martyn Macdonald said: “Up until around Heat 7 it was very much going to plan, and it was very similar to what we had done at Cradley last week.
“Unfortunately Birmingham had a lot of ammo to throw at us in the later races and things gradually slipped away.
“We’ve had some good and bad performances but this certainly wasn’t a bad one – they are a strong side especially at home, and you also know they have Leon Flint at reserve who is always going to take an extra ride.
“Connor was really in amongst it for us and Luke Ruddick also rode very well, but both Luke Harris and Jamie Halder blew engines so it was a tough night for them.
“We very much played our part in what was a good meeting to watch, so I’m not too disappointed with it and now we need to re-group for the weekend.â€
Bees have a busy weekend to look forward to as they visit Eastbourne in the Knockout Cup on Saturday before hosting Kent at Leicester on Sunday.
BIRMINGHAM 53: Danyon Hume 15, Leon Flint 12+1, Tom Bacon 11+1, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 9, Layne Cupitt 4+1, Callum Walker 2+1, Arran Butcher 0. COVENTRY 37: Connor Mountain 11, Luke Ruddick 8+1, Danny Phillips 6+1, Jon Armstrong 4+1, Jamie Halder 4, Luke Harris 3+1, Stephen Whitehouse 1+1.
