COVENTRY'S second meeting of the day, away at Leicester, resulted in a 54-38 defeat to end a run of four successive victories.
The Buildbase Bees are now fourth in the table, level on points with third-placed Eastbourne and Swindon in fifth, having taken three points from the day’s action. They are a single race point ahead of the Robins, although they have four matches in hand.
The evening meeting at the Jordan Road Surfacing Stadium was far less profitable for the Bees, whose gating deserted them for much of the meeting.
The Lions dominated the heat wins, with Bees largely keeping in touch through the splendid efforts of guest Kyle Newman, who won his first three rides – with the team as a whole only having two other successes.
Newman rounded Josh Bates to take Heat 2 but James Sarjeant, struggling with his machine, was passed on the run to the line by Max Clegg who had come from a 15-metre handicap.
And 5-1s in Heats 3 and 5 put the Lions into early control despite a good effort by Kyle Howarth to win Heat 4 ahead of Nicolai Klindt.
Bees sent Hans Andersen out for double points in Heat 6 but it was Mads Korneliussen who won the race for the Lions, limiting Bees to a 5-3.
Newman underlined his form with a win over Simon Stead in the next, and with Kenneth Hansen’s third place reducing the gap to six points Bees at that stage had hopes of taking at least a league point.
But Klindt and Korneliussen stormed clear from the start in Heat 8 to put the lead back to ten, and the next two races were shared with Bees twice making good starts in Heat 10 only for the race to be pulled back, initially when Stead fell after contact with Chris Harris – before he then won the second re-run.
Korneliussen and Craig Cook gated again in Heat 11 and although Andersen briefly overhauled Cook for second place the Leicester guest hit back on the last lap and Andersen fell as he attempted to hold his position.
With the gap at 14 points, the Lions were in charge and they were content to share the next two races although they were a trifle fortunate to have both riders in the re-run of Heat 13 after Kylmakorpi appeared to run out of room on turn two due to the proximity of Cook rather than either of the Coventry riders.
Klindt’s second win of the meeting in Heat 14 ensured maximum points for the Lions, although there was slight consolation for the Bees in the final race when skipper Harris pulled off a fabulous ride to deny Korneliussen and Cook their maximums, taking the lead with a strong inside pass at the start of the last lap.
Bees boss Gary Havelock said: “In an ideal world I would have liked seven points today, but unfortunately we don’t live in an ideal world!
“The evening meeting was disappointing, but I guess it’s a bad day at the office and that can happen to anybody.
“We just couldn’t find the set-ups to get ourselves out of the gate and into the first corner – every time the tapes went up, their riders were into the first corner first, and on the odd occasion when our riders did, it got stopped!
“All credit to Leicester, they are down near the bottom of the league and have nothing really to play for, and they did a job on us.
“To be fair, the afternoon meeting was close, and if I’m perfectly honest they probably deserved a point at our place. It happens, and we move on to the next meeting.â€
LEICESTER 54: Mads Korneliussen 12+2, Craig Cook 11+3, Simon Stead 9, Nicolai Klindt 8, Joonas Kylmakorpi 6, Josh Bates 4+2, Max Clegg 4+1. BUILDBASE BEES 38: Kyle Newman 13+1, Chris Harris 8+2, Hans Andersen 7, Kyle Howarth 6, Aaron Summers 3, Kenneth Hansen 1+1, James Sarjeant 0.