THE Buildbase Bees travelled to Poole confident that they had the ability to take an away win - but surely nobody envisaged the kind of night which was to unfold at Wimborne Road.
It was one of those perfect occasions in which everything came together to devastating effect on a night which brought back memories of two years ago when the Bees went to Oxford and walloped the Cheetahs 64-28.
That result was subsequently expunged as the Cowley club failed to see out the season, but the other key difference - surely - is that this Poole team are well superior to that Oxford line-up.
To limit a team including Bjarne Pedersen and Chris Holder to just one race win all evening must say something - even before you consider the strong start to the season of Joe Screen and the multiple home race wins of Daniel Davidsson.
It was a night for the seven Coventry riders to take all of the accolades they deserved, from skipper and top-scorer Chris Harris to rookie reserve Ricky Wells who scored genuine points on a totally unfamiliar away circuit against far more experienced riders.
Also including two riders in Rory Schlein and Olly Allen who both went through the pain barrier to clock up big scores, a rock-solid middle-order completed by Edward Kennett and Ben Barker - and, possibly most remarkable of all, doubling-up reserve Jordan Frampton, who grew up on the terraces at Wimborne Road, who might have been in the Poole squad this year, and who became the first Coventry rider to score a maximum this season!
It was all the more praiseworthy because much of the pre-match talk had centred around the fact that the Pirates had been out-scored by Simon Gustafsson in their recent matches by Eastbourne, but may have been under the impression that the Bees would not have a high-scoring reserve of their own!
From the very start of the meeting, it seemed to be all about application and desire amongst the Coventry riders, and with Lukasz Jankowski briefly leading Heat 1 before being reversed to the back of the field, Barker summed up the mood by spectacularly bursting through to the front, leaving Pirates skipper Bjarne Pedersen in his wake.
With Harris in a hard-pressing third place, Bees were off to a 4-2 start, and that was also the outcome of the next two races - Frampton dominating things over Carl Stonehewer at the start of Heat 2 with Wells getting the better of Paul Hurry for third place, and then in the next it was the visiting riders into the first bend first, although Davidsson did manage to prevent a 5-1 by coming past Allen for second place behind Kennett.
But if Poole thought things had got off to a bad start, it was about to get a whole lot worse when Hurry fell in a tightly-contested first bend in Heat 4, whilst the battle at the front featured Schlein holding off Holder. Going into the last lap, Holder lost control and fell, allowing Frampton through for second place with the disappointed Poole man re-mounting for a point.
As one 5-1 was completed, another was on the way in Heat 5, this time courtesy of Harris and Barker as the Bees stormed into an early 14-point lead and put the Pirates in need of a tactical ride in the next race.
But although Pedersen took the race win ahead of a chasing Schlein - for what turned out to be their sole success of the night - Wells again battled for the third place and overcame Jankowski to limit the Pirates to just a 6-3 advantage.
And that three-point gain was totally wiped out in Heat 7 when mechanical problems for Holder saw him fail to leave the start-line, Kennett and Allen taking full advantage and racing clear of Stonehewer.
Then in Heat 8 Bees again showed how much they wanted to take control of the early stages of races, and Hurry's efforts to get on terms with either Barker or Frampton met with no success - the score was a barely believable 35-16 in the Buildbase Bees' favour.
Schlein, riding in some discomfort from his recent crashes in Poland, showed plenty of muscle to get ahead and stay ahead of Screen and Davidsson in Heat 9 as Wells missed out for the first time - but a 3-3 was going to be as good as it got for Poole, because Allen and Kennett put together their second 5-1 of the meeting in the very next race, and this time it was Pedersen who was well and truly blocked out.
The second tactical ride came into play in Heat 11, albeit even at this stage the Pirates' hopes of taking anything were mathematical at best, and Holder was only able to double second place thanks to Harris's efforts. Meanwhile, Stonehewer was relegated to the back by Barker on the third lap, and with four heats to go Bees already had their four points in the bag.
Not that there was any serious let-up in the scoring although Wells was unfortunate to come down in Heat 12 when he was set for another third place ahead of Hurry.
Allen took his second win of the meeting, and Poole's evening reached nightmarish proportions as Bees smashed the 60-point mark with consecutive 5-1s in Heats 13 and 14.
First Harris and Schlein took the maximum haul from Heat 13, Schlein again riding strongly to repel all challenges, and then in Heat 14 there was a farcical scene prior to the race with Davidsson suffering mechanical problems and no sign of any assistance being forthcoming from the pits.
The Swede was duly timed out and Frampton teamed up with Kennett to complete his dream paid maximum, earning the bumps from his delighted team-mates on his way back to the pits.
Kennett was still unbeaten at this stage, although he was to be denied a paid maximum on his own Wimborne Road return, that courtesy of a clash with Pedersen in Heat 15. Kennett's inside challenge was too strong, Pedersen slid into the fence and Bees could not contest that disqualification - but it hardly had any effect on the overall proceedings, and Harris ensured that Bees still finished with a heat winner as he took control of the re-run.
We always say that any away win is a good result - and particularly important given the scoring system this year. But this was more than an away win: this was total domination and a huge statement of intent following last week's defeat at Swindon. It finished Poole 32, Coventry 63... remember the score!
POOLE 32 Bjarne Pedersen 2 6^ 1 0 2 = 11 Lukasz Jankowski 0 0 0 0 = 0 Joe Screen 0 1 1* 2 = 4+1 Daniel Davidsson 2 0 2 M = 4 Chris Holder 1 R 4^ 1 1* = 7+1 Carl Stonehewer 2 1 0 R = 3 Paul Hurry 0 F 1 1* 1 = 3+1
