THE Buildbase Bees came away from an eventful meeting at Arlington with no Elite League points - but still finished with a place in the play-offs.
A controversial Heat 15 had long-since been concluded by the time Belle Vue and Peterborough went into their closing stages at Kirkmanshulme Lane, and Krzysztof Kasprzak was the man the Bees had to thank for winning the race and preventing a Panthers draw or win.
Before that, a series of events at both venues had given reason to suspect that the play-off race might just be destined to go on to the Poole v Peterborough fixture next Monday, but Kasprzak's win in the surprising Heat 15 absence of Jason Crump was enough to settle the issue.
Bees, of course, had wanted to keep their destiny in their own hands throughout, but once again finished just short of taking a point from Eastbourne.
It was a meeting where they suffered a catalogue of problems, starting the previous day when Olly Allen was ruled out with a shoulder injury, and their three in-form riders on the night couldn't quite compensate for the other lower scores.
Allen's absence meant only one of his rides could be taken by a top-five man, Ben Barker, whilst Eastbourne's Simon Gustafsson, with a lower average than Allen, missed out but could be covered by all except home No.1 Davey Watt.
And both Joonas Kylmakorpi and Paul Hurry slotted well into an Eagles team who ran minimal last places throughout the evening, even if by the end the Bees had taken the majority of heat winners.
One of those home last places came in the first race, with Watt well adrift and then pulling up as Chris Harris and Barker gave the Bees the perfect start with a straightforward 5-1 after both made good starts.
But this was immediately cancelled out in a re-run Heat 2 with Hurry and Ricky Kling quickly establishing themselves up-front, and the home side then moved in front with a 4-2 in Heat 3, Cameron Woodward riding well on the first bend and then throughout the race to keep out Edward Kennett, whose last-lap effort on the outside saw him briefly relinquish second place to Lewis Bridger only to regain it on the back straight.
Heat 4 provided a surprising running order with Kling hitting the front ahead of Jordan Frampton, with Rory Schlein holding Kylmakorpi for third place. But Frampton then hit bike trouble going into the last bend and fell, handing Eastbourne a 4-2, and more Eagles advantages followed.
There was further misfortune for the Bees in Heat 5, first when Harris and Barker were shuffled out of contention on the first bend, and then when Harris suffered a puncture when chasing Bridger and Woodward.
Then Watt managed to get above Schlein from gate two into the first bend of Heat 6, and the resulting 4-2 put the Eagles ten points up and left Bees considering tactical moves. Kennett was immediately deployed for double-points in Heat 7 and managed to return with all six-points thanks to a brave move around the outside of Kylmakorpi on the back straight, but Frampton's defences of third place were breached at the start of the last lap by the far more experienced Hurry.
Frampton's troubles continued on the first bend of Heat 8 when he put the bike down in a tight spot, and it looked like disaster for the Bees with Barker facing a 5-1 reverse - but the Coventry rider showed exactly what he is about by surging around Kling and then switching back superbly to drive inside Woodward for the race win of the night.
But Bees' fortune was to get worse as Bridger went ahead in Heat 9, going around Schlein on the back straight, only to lock up on turn four with Schlein going down in avoidance.
Schlein had been left in a difficult position and was unlucky to be disqualified, and as he accepted the comments of the home staff on his way back to the pits, his mind probably went back to when he held three times the lead of Bridger at Wolverhampton last season and still found himself disqualified when the home riders collided!
The re-run saw the Eagles predictably ease to a 5-1, and when Bridger got the better of Kennett in a close battle in the early stages of Heat 10 Bees were suddenly 13-points down and needing to find something special to avoid a collapse.
The second tactical ride in Heat 11 was going to be key to their hopes, with an 8-1 really needed, but Barker was caught out by much-changed conditions and Bees were in the end pleased to see Harris take the six-pointer having had to work hard on the first lap to overcome Hurry.
Barker made the required changes ahead of his rider-replacement outing and cut back well to take the lead of Heat 12 as Bridger took his team-mate Kling wide, and that allowed Ricky Wells to come through into third spot, and also challenge for second.
The run of Bees race winners continued in Heat 13 with Harris taking the flag but Schlein missing out on the first bend, whilst in Heat 14 it was Kennett holding off Woodward for the win, but the 3-3 with Hurry third made sure of an Eastbourne win.
Bees still had hopes of taking a point from the meeting, which would have been significant had Peterborough drawn at Belle Vue, and Kennett and Harris seemed very capable of taking an advantage from Heat 15.
Kennett duly made the start but Harris missed out, only to be involved in more controversy when his inside run was blocked by a clamping move by Woodward, which took the Eastbourne rider into his locked-up team-mate Bridger. All three riders went down, Harris seemingly in avoidance, and it was to the astonishment of the Coventry contingent that after viewing several replays the referee disqualified Harris, who did not appear to have triggered the incident in the first place, or indeed forced the two Eagles to collide.
That was game over as far as a point was concerned, and it was just left to Kennett to complete a most impressive show back at his old home track with a win in the re-run.
At that point it looked like a bad night was about to get worse as the Panthers moved in - but Kasprzak's had the final say at Kirkmanshulme Lane, and the Bees can therefore make definite plans for September 21.
