Last night at Brandon was one to savour with both Coventry and Swindon management beforehand very respectful to each other's team and no-one was predicting the outcome, such was the close standing and expectation of the final second leg.
Swindon's manager Alan 'Rosco' Rossiter was quoted as saying he'd rather be 6 points ahead than behind going into the 2nd leg, whilst the Bees co-manager Peter Oakes re-iterated that the Bees had definitely not been celebrating at Swindon after holding the gap to 6 points, and that whilst the target was 7 points to get victory if was by no means a done deal.
In contrast to many football matches across the country the presence of the Sky TV cameras did not deter a very large crowd from turning up at Brandon to savour the atmosphere and cheer both teams on.
The TGI's island was congested from quite early on and the very large car park at the stadium was officially full and closed over half an hour before the scheduled start time. Many of those still trying to get in then had to park wherever they could and some unfortunately suffered mechanical gremlins. Once parked up there were very lengthy queues to get to the turnstiles and it was no surprise that the actual racing didn't get underway until 20 minutes after the scheduled 7.30pm start time.
This delay also helped Swindon's Sebastian Ulamek repair his bike for in the 2 lap warm up he oddly crashed into the air fence on turns 3 and 4.
However this didn't affect him for in front of the expectant and nervous crowd Swindon shot out from the tapes in heat 1 and Ulamek led home Leigh Adams in the fastest time of the night to record a 5-1 heat victory but more importantly put the Bees 10 points down on aggregate.
The reserves race in heat 2 became quickly pivotal as Swindon's new signing, and star for the future, Damian Balinski took to the track against the Bees pairing of Billy Janniro and Martin Smolinski, and in the first running the Pole Balinski chopped across Billy Janniro at turn 2 and causing him to fall. After studying the Sky TV replay for what seemed an age the referee excluded Balinski and the re-run saw the Bees bring the score on the night level with a maximum 5-1.
Whilst the Bees were once again using the rider replacement facility for the injured Olly Allen Swindon, whilst tracking a full side, carried their own injury worries with Lee Richardson still suffering from a groin injury following the previous meeting between the 2 sides at Brandon, and Dane Charlie Gjedde suffered a bad crash in Poland on Sunday night.
Heat 3 saw Bomber Harris sweep round the outside of Pole Tomasz Chrzanowski in a shared heat, but the Bees started to step up a gear in heat 4 where Rory Schlein and Martin Smolinksi scored yet another maximum heat 5-1 to move 4 points up on the night but more importantly the aggregate difference was now 2 points.
A shared heat 5 led into a superb heat 6 where Scott Nicholls showed how much he wanted to led the Bees to victory by a very determined pass of Charlie Gjedde where there seemed to be no room at all.
This seemed to help the Bees for this stage of the meeting was where they put down the power as the heat 6 4-2 advantage (bringing the aggregate scores level) was then followed by 4 successive 5-1 heat maximums for the Bees. The pick of the bunch was in heat 10 where the Swindon dup outgated the Bees pairing of Scott and Steve Johnston but yet another determined pass in a seemingly impossible gap for Scott took him from 3rd to 1st, and Johnno was not to be outdone going from 4th to 2nd.
However Swindon's cause was not helped in heat 7 where Lee Richardson seemed to be struggling to control his bike, and went to ground heavily at turn 2 of lap 2.
Whilst the Bees were holding a 5-1 advantage large sections of the Bees support thought Lee lying prone on the track was a ploy to restart the race. However it quickly became apparent that his groin injury had been badly aggravated and he was taken from the track in the ambulance and dispatched off to hospital. So with Lee now out of the meeting his rides could only be taken by the Swindon reserves, and Leigh Adams fought a lone battle against the Bees.
With the score at 41-19 after heat 10 the Swindon management focused on the aggregate score and Leigh Adams in heat 11 took the double points scoring tactical ride. He duly won the heat but with the Bees taking 2nd and 3rd places the 3 points advantage didn't made a dent in the Bees overall aggregate lead.
A Bees 4-2 in heat 13 sealed the championship victory for the Bees with Rory defeating Leigh Adams in fine style and the celebration started on the terraces and in the stands for the Bees followers.
The last 2 heats seemed incidental but the Bees won the match 59-34 and the championship final by 102-83, with Rory leading the way in the scores with 16+1 but the whole team were stars and played their part.
At the end the crowd surged onto the centre of the track to get a close up of the championship trophy followed by a mass parade of the trophy around the Brandon shale alongside the riders.
Two championships and a knock-out cup victory means the Bees have had 3 very successful years, with credit and thanks to every rider for their fantastic efforts and the team spirit in the Bees camp has been a pleasure to witness. 
