Coventry Bees Speedway Team were beaten 52-40 at home by Peterborough Panthers tonight in the first leg of the Knock Out Cup.
The opening heat had to be re-run after Ryan Fisher hit a fence on the first lap and was excluded. Linus Sundrstrom and Nicki Pedersen made sure that Emil Sayfutdinov was blocked out of it and Peterborough won 5-1.
The Bees were forced to use rider replacement for Fisher. In Heat Two, Nick Morris rode to victory with Josh Auty who had bike problems and started half a lap back. Thankfully Poole's bike packed up and it was a 4-2 for the Bees.
Kenni Larsen had problems at the start of heat three and with Przemy Pawlicki getting a second, Peterborough had a 4-2 and led 11-7.
Ed Kennet and Nick Morris wiped out the 4-2 in heat four and the fifth heat finished 3-3
Heat six saw the Bees level the score and it stayed that way until heat eight when Nick Morris hit Josh Auty who being the only Bees rider could not compete with the pace set by Sundrstrom and Lawson and it was 5-1 to Peterborough.
The Panthers went eight points clear with 4-2 wins in heat nine and ten and by heat twelve another 4-2 had increased their lead to ten points.
Sayfutdinov took a tactical ride in heat thirteen and helped the Bees to a 5-3 win but a 3-3 in heat fourteen and fifteen meant that Peterborough had the win with a 50-42 victory.