The Coventry Bees took on the Birmingham Brummies at Brandon this evening in the 1st leg semi final of the knockout cup, with this competition providing the last opportunity to get some silverware for both teams.
As expected, with the Brummies having 4 former Bees in their side, the first 4 heats ebbed and flowed with the scores level as 12 apiece after heat 4. However Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris led the way to the Bees opening up a 6 point lead by the end of heat 6, which extended to an 8 point lead by the end of heat 8.
New to this competition this season are the match or 'man on man' races, the first of which the Brummies Josh Auty won over Scott Nicholls, which pegged the scoreline back to a Bees 5 point lead.
Thereafter the Bees set about trying to extend their 1st leg lead but the Brummies managed to keep the scoreline down to 7 points going into the interval after heat 12.
Heats 13 and 14 saw the Bees extend their lead further with two 4-2's making the lead a healthy 11 points, but after heat 14 came the 2nd 'man on man' match race which Brummies Ben Barker led home Chris Harris, thus reducing the Bees lead to 8 points. The Brummies then ended the night winning heat 15 4-2 to leave the semi-final delicately poised with the Bees holding only a 6 point lead, winning 51-45 on the night.
The Bees scorers were: