COVENTRY'S bid to climb the Elite League table with their matches in hand was thwarted again on Friday - but not by the weather.
A complete power failure around the local area left the stadium without lighting, tannoy system and an inflated air-fence shortly after Heat 6 of the Buildbase Bees' clash with local rivals Wolverhampton.
The club were quickly in contact with the electricity board, but they were unable to give assurances of a quick re-connection, although with enough natural light for the crowd inside the stadium the meeting was initially delayed for an hour in the hope that power would return.
Unfortunately, with light fading rapidly at 9.45pm and with power not due to be restored until 10.30pm at the earliest, the meeting was abandoned, allowing supporters to leave in safety. Ironically, by 10pm the fault clearly had been traced by the electricity board as Brandon was once again under-power!
Adding to Coventry's frustration was the fact that they appeared well in control of the meeting, having held a 22-14 lead at the time of the abandonment.
Skipper Chris Harris broke the track record in Heat 1, setting a time of 57.8, and race wins followed for Stan Burza and Simon Stead in their first rides as well.
Harris and Burza superbly went either side of David Howe to give Bees a maximum advantage from Heat 6, but that was as far as the meeting went as the power went off as the riders returned to the pits.
The match will be re-staged later in the season, and supporters will be able to use their re-admission tickets from the meeting at any home Coventry team meeting this year.
BUILDBASE BEES 22 Chris Harris 3 3 = 6 Olly Allen Rider Replacement Mads Korneliussen 1* 2 = 3+1 Billy Janniro 2 1* = 3+1 Simon Stead 3 = 3 Stan Burza 3 2* = 5+1 Ben Barker 0 1 1 = 2
WOLVES 14 Fredrik Lindgren 2 3 = 5 Ales Dryml 1* 0 = 1+1 Edward Kennett 3 = 3 Nicolai Klindt Rider Replacement David Howe 0 1 = 1 Chris Neath 0 0 0 = 0 Joel Parsons 2 2 = 4
