Poole terminate Coventry home record.

In the big battle of the top two, Poole edged out 47-43 winners at Coventry tonight to end the Bee's unbeaten home record and put a little distance between them and the Bees at the top of the table.

Both teams had riders away on world championship duty. Coventry called up Craig Watson in place of Ryan Fisher while Mikael Max filled in for Lukas Dryml and Steve Johnston for Bjarne Pedersen in the Poole line-up. Watson scored a respectable five but perhaps the difference was Max who demonstrated his liking for Brandon with paid fifteen.

Coventry began as narrow favourites with home track advantage and it started out that way as they opened up a six point lead in the early stages. That opened the way for Poole to utilise their incredibly powerful heat leaders as tactical substitutes as soon as heat five when Tony Rickardsson and Max teamed up for a maximum advantage that cut the Bee's lead to just two points.

That was wiped out in heat six as the Pirates levelled things up. From then on there was nothing to split two teams slugging it out toe to toe with the prize of outright Elite League leadership to the winners.

The break came in heat nine when Rickardsson zipped to victory in a new track record and with his riding partner in third, the Pirates went ahead for the first time. But their lead was cancelled out in the very next heat as Coventry hit back though Billy Hamill.

The status quo remained until heat thirteen when the Pirates crept ahead again with a 4-2 through Rickardsson and Adams and then repeated the dose in heat fourteen for an overall four point lead which also made the aggregate scores level following Coventry's four point win at Poole earlier in the season which made the final heat a "three pointer" as the destination of the bonus point rested on it.

Adams roared to win heat fifteen but with Jonsson and Hamill shutting out Rickardsson it meant a shared heat with Poole becoming the first team to win at Brandon in 2003 but a sudden death run off would be required for the bonus. Hamill and Adams were pitched in together but it all became academic as Hamill found trouble and fell leaving the important third point in the Pirate's treasure chest.

Scorers:

Coventry
Billy Hamill 11, Billy Janniro (rider replacement), Lee Richardson 10, Stuart Robson 4, Andreas Jonsson 10, Jason Bunyan 3, Craig Watson 5

Poole
Leigh Adams 12, David Ruud (rider replacement), Mikael Max 12, Steve Johnston 3, Tony Rickardsson 11, Krzysztof Kasprzak 9, Davey Watt 0