The old saying of getting back into the saddle after a fall applied to the Coventry Bees after a disasterous night at Poole, the Bees played hosts to the Lakeside Hammers at Brandon.
Still tracking rider replacement for the injured, and to be replaced, Christian Hefenbrock the Bees also had Nils Kristian Iversen in as a guest for the grand prix bound Chris Harris.
The first two heats of the night were drawn but first blood went the way of the Bees with successive maximum 5-1's in heats 3 and 4 to open up an 8 point gap. A further three drawn heats followed before Richard Sweetman and Ben Barker, aided by a fall from Hammer (and former Bee) Stuart Robson brought home another maximum 5-1 to take the Bees into uncharted terriotory this season holding a 12 point advantage on the night.
A tactical ride by Hammer Adam Shields helped pull the lead back to 9 points going into the mid meeting interval.
A quite superb ride by Richard Sweetman in heat 12 saw an amazing last to second sweep on the first bend to follow home for what looked like a match winning 5-1, but to the Bees supporters delight another 5-1 for the Bees in heat 13 sealed the meeting and the first points (3) for the Bees this season.
The final score was Coventry Bees 53 Lakeside Hammers 40 with the Bees scorers as follows:
1. N.K. Iversen 2 2 2 3 1* = 10+1
2. Rider Repl
3. R. Schlein 3 2 2 3 2 = 12
4. B. Barker 2* 1* 2* 1* 0 = 6+4
5. E. Kennett 3 3 2 2* = 10+1
6. F. Sitera 1* 1* 0 1* 1 = 4+3
7. R. Sweetman 1* 2 2* 3 1* 2* = 11+4
The Next meeting for the Bees is next friday (30th April) when the Wolverhampton Wolves coem to Brandon, a meeting which will also see the Bees track Hefenbrocks replacement in Przemyslaw Pawlicki.