Coventry 53 Peterborough 37 – KO cup 2nd Leg Coventry win 100 – 80 on aggregate
Peterborough as expected went out of the KO cup following this defeat at Brandon, but it could have been so much different after a great start.
The Panthers were much the better side from the start on a tricky surface, and after heat advantages in three of the first four races led the home side after 4 races by 15 pts to 9.
Kenneth Bjerre and Ales Dryml both made textbook starts to lead heat 1 and although the Bees Captain Chris Harris eventually got past Dryml, their was no catching Bjerre who set a very quick sub 59 second time in winning heat 1.
Coventry’s Filip Sitera never got off the start in heat 2 and it immediately got worse as Joel Parsons fell on the 3rd bend to gift Panthers a reserve 5-1, The Bees pairing hit back in heat 3 but determined riding from Mads Korneliussen saw him split the home pair and restrict the advantage.
Panthers captain Niels K Iversen comfortably got the better of an early challenge from Rory Schlein in heat 4, whilst Parsons again fell on turn 3 as Panthers extended their lead to 6 points.
Bjerre made another great start to easily beat the Coventry pairing in heat 5 with the resulting 3-3 maintaining the status quo.
Coventry quickly hit back in heat 6 and Ben Barker combined with Harris for a surprising 5-1 over Iversen, who chased hard but could never quite catch Barker despite pressure for the entire race. Heat 7 also went to the Bees with Schlein taking the race win ahead of Korneliussen whilst Sitera collected a gift third place as Vissing fell.
The next two races were shared which left the tie nicely balanced at 27 points apiece, before a cruel stroke of luck which changed the entire match.
Vissing made a wonderful start in the 10th but locked up and spun directly in front of Korneliussen who was left with nowhere to go, the resulting coming together resulting in a chest injury to Korneliussen which ruled him out of the rest of the meeting on doctors’ advice.
In the rerun Coventry took full advantage of Panthers misfortunes and recorded another 5-1 to put themselves 4 points ahead, Bjerre won heats 11 and 13 in convincing style but another Bees maximum in the intervening heat 12 extended their lead to 8, and the Bees sealed their semi final place with further maximums in heats 14 and 15 which rather gave them a flattering winning margin which didn’t reflect the Panthers earlier efforts.
Bjerre who had looked unbeatable in his first four rides also surrendered what looked odds on as his first 2009 maximum, but he made a poor start in heat 15 and he was never able to get back on terms.
Special mention must be made of Rene Bach who worked hard for his paid 6 return, despite again having a close encounter of the air fence kind, when chasing the dirt out wide in heat 12.
Team Manager Trevor Swales said “I was very disappointed to lose this match because at the start we had them on the rocks, we adapted earlier better than them to the conditions but we just petered out and then we lost Mads, and that was the main turning point of the meeting. I was very impressed with Rene Bach, who again had bike problems but got on with his job.
It’s very disappointing to again go out of this competition at the first hurdle yet again, but we now just have to get on with the league and it can only get better from here on in”.
Coventry 53 (100) 1. Chris Harris 2-3-3-1*-3 = 12+1 2. Ben Barker 0-2*-3-2* = 7+2 3. Oliver Allen 3-1*-2-3-2* = 11+2 4. Edward Kennett 1-2-1*-2* = 6+2 5. Rory Schlein 2-3-2-2 = 9 6. Filip Sitera R-1-1*-3 = 5+1 7. Joel Parsons 1-R-F-2* = 3+1