THE 2007 Craven Shield was the second phase of the glorious treble for the Buildbase Bees - but they will need a stunning revival to keep the trophy in the cabinet after being swept aside at Wimborne Road.
A fortnight ago Bees were beaten by 14 points in Dorset, but this time the margin was ten greater as the Pirates took full advantage of a spectacular start to the meeting.
If you trail 23-7 after five races, you give yourself an enormous mountain to climb - and although Bees did fashion a comeback in the middle stages, the work done there was undone in the closing part of the match as the Pirates put an emphatic seal on proceedings.
The evidence so far is that they are the outstanding team of the Elite League with Freddie Eriksson and, in particular, Adam Skornicki, riding way beyond their form of previous years - and with a World class rider in Chris Holder making predictably rapid strides from his initial converted five-point average.
For Bees, there were slim pickings with just two heat winners all evening, and they had to wait nine races to notch their first one - and although most of the riders did have a good moment in the meeting, there was little to cheer overall with the exception of a gusty performance from No.8 Ben Barker who was by no means overawed by his elevation into a top-flight team.
But Bees simply gave themselves far too much work to do, and the pattern was set in the first race when Eriksson charged away from gate two and Bjarne Pedersen made it around both Olly Allen and Rory Schlein by the end of the first lap for the first of six 5-1s on the night for the Pirates.
The second wasn't long in coming as their reserves delivered the goods, although Craig Watson did have a tiger on his tail in Barker - and just when Chris Harris looked set to provide Bees with a heat win in the third race, his misfire returned to enable Holder to make his move around the outside on the third lap.
Two gate-and-go races then followed which made for rather painful viewing as the Pirates drove to the first bend with daylight between them and their counterparts, Skornicki involved both times as they went into that early 16-point lead.
Bees then began to get their act together, managing to share the points in Heat 6 with Stan Burza riding well to fend off Eriksson, and they took two back with the tactical ride in the next race - Harris missing the start when he tried to anticipate it, which allowed Davey Watt to go clear, with the Bees skipper salvaging four points after passing Watson.
Engine trouble sent Allen into the fence on turn four in Heat 8, and the re-run saw another encouraging ride by Barker to hold off Eriksson and at least prevent the Pirates from notching another 5-1.
Then came Coventry's two heat wins, both back-to-back - first from Simon Stead, who out-gated Holder to take the flag in Heat 9, and then the main moment of the night for the visitors came in Heat 10 as Harris and Billy Janniro got away, and then rode well to bank maximum points over Pedersen.
At that stage, a disastrous result looked like it could be averted as Bees had pegged the lead at 40-28, but things were about to take a turn for the worse - following a shared Heat 11 which saw Schlein make the start but Watt get past him on the first lap after Watson had fallen.
Then in Heat 12 Holder again defeated Harris with Skornicki seeing off Burza in a good battle for the odd point, and the Pirates were hunting a further extension of their lead.
That duly arrived in Heats 13 and 14 as the Bees conceded maximum points on both occasions - first at the hands of Pedersen and Watt, who again had to fight off Schlein, and then from Eriksson and Skornicki who got the better of Janniro for another 5-1.
Harris at least stopped the rot to an extent in the finale, even though Watt completed a fine maximum, as the Bees skipper managed to beat Holder for second place, but with 24 points to pull back at Brandon it will take a fair degree of optimism to expect progression from this situation.
