ANOTHER close call for the Buildbase Bees, but once again there was spirit and character on show to see them home by a narrow margin against the Poole Pirates.
Poole have been prematurely written off this season by several observers, but there is little doubt that this Pirates side will win away matches this year, and Bees could feel relieved at the end of the night that they had done just enough to take the points after a thrilling encounter.
Certainly, victory on the night looked far from assured at the halfway stage as the Pirates held a four-point advantage, and Coventry's task was made somewhat easier towards the end by a couple of mechanical failures from the visitors.
Fortunately, Bees had skipper Scott Nicholls in fine form, and with good heat-leader support forthcoming from Chris Harris and Rory Schlein it meant that the Poole top two of Jason Crump and Bjarne Pedersen did not have things their own way.
Nicholls started off in confident fashion by out-trapping Crump from gate three to win the first race in comfortable fashion ahead of the World Champion and Billy Janniro - but Poole were straight back level in the reserves' race as the impressive Jason Doyle rode a tidy race to win, with Morten Risager salvaging second place by moving inside Troy Batchelor on the third lap after the Pirates had conclusively out-gated the home riders.
Pedersen took his first win of the night as he held off the challenge of Schlein in Heat 3, the Bees man having a real 'moment' on turns one and two as he tried to pass - and the visitors did go in front in Heat 4 with Craig Boyce and Batchelor storming from the start and leaving Harris trailing well behind. A 5-1 looked likely for some time but Harris finally wound things on around the outside to pass Batchelor going into the last lap, and with another half-lap or so he may have been able to get to Boyce as well.
Crump became Poole's fourth successive winner in Heat 5 with a win over Schlein as Edward Kennett took third place ahead of Olly Allen for another Poole 4-2 - but the Coventry comeback started in Heat 6 after Boyce had ridden three and a half perfect laps to hold off Nicholls. The veteran went a fraction wide off the last bend and Nicholls shot up the inside to take the verdict, the two riders almost colliding as they went over the finishing line.
There was more overtaking in Heat 7 with the kind of ride that Harris specialises in. Pedersen must have felt he had the race won as he repelled the Bees rider's attacks, but after a lap of chasing around the outside, Harris suddenly switched back going into the last lap and caught Pedersen out completely, then winning the race up the back straight as Pedersen too went for the inside. It was a marvellous move, and with Risager in third place ahead of Craig Watson Bees had levelled the scores.
Not for long, however, as Poole took a totally unexpected 5-1 from Heat 8 with Bees once again tardy from the start. It was Kennett who raced clear from gate 3 and Batchelor proved the trump card in second place as he held off first Janniro and then Martin Smolinski in an excellent ride to put Poole 26-22 up - and surely thinking about their chances of an away win.
But that sparked Bees in to action, and Schlein and Allen flew from the start in Heat 9 to leave Boyce trailing and level things up once again - and it was the first of back-to-back 5-1s as Pedersen lost out in the early stages of Heat 10, Nicholls and Janniro hitting the front and the Dane initially being trapped behind his team-mate and then making up little ground to challenge.
Suddenly Bees had turned things around into a winning position, but there was still work to be done and Risager fended off an enthusiastic challenge from Kennett for third place in Heat 11 as Harris kept Crump honest at the front.
Bees were happy enough to maintain a four-point lead, but Poole again had a chance after Heat 12 when they were arguably a little fortunate that Pedersen found himself with nowhere to go on the first bend as Doyle and Risager moved out from inside him. Pedersen had certainly been out-gated by Schlein, who was away, but Pedersen's fall led to an all-four re-start, absolutely the correct decision, and he took advantage by winning the re-run as Schlein averted disaster for Coventry by going round Doyle at the end of the first lap. Even so, Doyle took the third place and the lead was down to just two points.
However, the massive moment came early in Heat 13. Crump had made the start from the inside, with Nicholls going very wide in an attempt to generate speed, and Harris was cutting back under Boyce for third place - when Crump suddenly lost all power exiting turn two allowing the Bees riders to shoot through. Boyce briefly re-challenged Harris, but the Coventry man held his nerve and Bees were six in front, which always looked like it should be enough.
That turned out to be the case although Doyle again underlined his potential with another good win in Heat 14 - Poole's hopes finally coming to an end with Batchelor suffering an early engine failure, although to be fair to Bees Risager and Allen had out-trapped the ex-Coventry No.8 in any case. The shared heat was all Coventry needed, and they took the 3-3 to make sure of the points.
Crump, on a different machine, and Pedersen had the final say with a 5-1 in the last race as Nicholls seemed unable to find the speed of earlier, but the points were in the bag at that stage - although the result of the race gave Poole a boost with the aggregate point in mind.
A tremendous meeting with both sides giving it their all, and Bees just coming through in the end - quite an advert for speedway, and Coventry joint top of the table with Reading!