COVENTRY made it four Elite League wins on the trot with a hard-working display to see off Poole 47-43 at Brandon.
The Buildbase Bees never looked in serious danger of losing the meeting, but by the same token the Pirates were always in contention for a league point, and that was secured for the visitors by the outstanding Darcy Ward who was well backed by impressive Czech youngster Vaclav Milik.
Ten heat wins told one side of the story for the Pirates, but ten last places told the other as Bees defended efficiently when required – and the result means Eastbourne, Poole and Coventry are now all level on 27 points in third to fifth places in the league table.
Skipper Chris Harris led the way for the Bees with paid-12, although he didn’t quite have an answer to Ward in the closing stages as the Australian raced to an imperious 15-point maximum, whilst a couple of strong first laps from Hans Andersen were also important for the home side.
And with the middle order all contributing, both reserves did their job with Simon Lambert’s effort to defeat Kyle Newman for third place in Heat 14 especially worthy of praise.
Andersen split Ward and Milik with a pass at the end of lap one in the opening race, and after a shared Heat 2 Bees took the lead in the next with a 5-1 from Harris and Michael Jepsen Jensen after the race had initially been stopped when Daniel Nermark ploughed into Harris on the first bend.
Although the Swede was invited back for the re-run, he took no further part after finishing third, withdrawing with a suspected broken finger causing the Pirates to use the Injured Rider Replacement regulation sharing his remaining outings amongst team-mates.
Bees moved six points clear with a terrific first turn by Andersen in Heat 5 to move Simon Gustafsson aside and allow Harris through to join him, and the next two races were shared with Aaron Summers needing eyes in the back of his head to keep Josh Grajczonek behind him in Heat 7.
Bees edged a 4-2 from a competitive Heat 8, won by Jepsen Jensen with Gustafsson a last-bend faller, and three more shared races followed – the highlight being a wheel-to-wheel first lap between Andersen and Milik in Heat 10, with the Bees No.1 eventually prevailing on the outside.
Harris had a brief shot at Ward in the next when the opposing captain lifted on the back straight, but he quickly regained control and the visitors notched a 4-2 in the next thanks to Milik’s second win of the night with Newman heading Joe Jacobs for third.
Ward squeezed around Harris exiting turn two in Heat 13 after the Bees captain got a marginally better start, but Andersen held Grajczonek at bay for a 3-3 to maintain a six-point lead.
Victory on the night was ensured in Heat 14 with another 3-3 although Grajczonek got the race win his efforts had deserved, but Lambert’s third place ahead of Newman meant the best Poole could hope for was a point.
They did achieve that as Ward fended off every attention of Harris in a high-speed battle up-front, whilst Milik underlined his promise by diving inside Jepsen Jepsen going into the second lap – leaving the Bees with two points from the meeting and the Pirates with one.
Coventry boss Gary Havelock said: “What I liked about tonight was that we came out strongly from the start again, as we did last week, and we seemed to be in some form of control for most of the meeting.
“It would have been nice to have taken all three points, but when you have someone like Darcy Ward in the away team you have to say that he definitely is something special.
“We’re level with the play-off places now, but when you look at a couple of the teams there they are home-heavy – very good at home but not so good away, and I think as the season pans out our away form will help us get a top four spot.â€
BUILDBASE BEES 47: Chris Harris 11+1, Hans Andersen 9+1, Michael Jepsen Jensen 7+3, Kenneth Hansen 7, Simon Lambert 5+1, Aaron Summers 5, Joe Jacobs 3+3. POOLE 43: Darcy Ward 15, Vaclav Milik 12, Kyle Newman 8+1, Josh Grajczonek 5, Simon Gustafsson 2+1, Daniel Nermark 1, Ben Hopwood 0.