TO expect a straightforward meeting after the events of the weekend was probably expecting too much - and there had to be sympathy for Ipswich at Brandon on Bank Holiday Monday.
Coventry's re-declared team, within the 42-point limit according to the regulations, showed its top-end strength with a remarkable 14 heat wins, although the hardest race win of all may well have been achieved by Witches reserve Kozza Smith... on his own, but in considerable pain from a dreadful crash some 15 minutes earlier.
Scott Nicholls returned to the Buildbase Bees' line-up and quickly slotted back into the groove with three race wins, but whilst he was denied a maximum in Heat 13, it was celebrations for Rory Schlein and Chris Harris, both of whom went through the card - Harris for the second time in four nights.
The Witches were unfortunate to be coming up against a team re-declared to 42 points when they themselves are still on starting (39.90) averages - but the Buildbase Bees know all about that from last season.
Nicholls charged across from the outside in a tight first bend to Heat 1, where things became rather too close between himself and team-mate Filip Sitera, who was relegated to last place behind Jarek Hampel and Leigh Lanham.
But if contact was just about avoided there, it all went wrong in Heat 2 which ended with the Witches being reduced to five riders, losing both reserves.
At the first time of asking, Dawid Stachyra led from Jordan Frampton, with Ricky Wells attempting to move inside Smith up the back straight. Unfortunately, he clipped the Witches rider and fell heavily going into the bend, doing considerable damage to the fence before the air-barrier came in - and it was a relief when he was able to walk away, and compete in the rest of the meeting.
Smith emerged unscathed there but his Elite League outings so far have been dogged by misfortune, and there was more to come in the re-run - when the Witches gated and looked to have squeezed out Frampton, only for the Bees man to pick up mid-bend, which took him into Stachyra, Stachyra into Smith and all three into the fence at high speed.
Frampton was largely unhurt apart from some rib pain, but the Witches' duo weren't so fortunate, Stachyra being taken away with shoulder injuries and burns to his leg - and although Smith walked off the track, he was clearly in major discomfort and it is to his huge credit that he returned to the track to complete the four laps for three points. The time was irrelevant, the points richly deserved, and it was no surprise that it was the end of his evening.
That left Ipswich in the nightmare situation of having to go into six remaining races with just one rider, but although they struggled to match the Coventry top me, the points they took from the lower-order kept the score respectable.
The Bees' early three-point deficit was wiped out by a 5-1 from Schlein and Edward Kennett in Heat 3 as Daniel King was squeezed out early on, and a 4-2 followed in a three-man Heat 4 as Harris switched neatly inside Piotr Swiderski coming off turn two on the second lap.
Hampel made the best start in Heat 5, but Schlein was quickly through on the inside up the back straight, and Kennett made it down the inside of the Pole at the start of the second lap, which put the Bees into a comfortable seven-point lead.
Nicholls was untroubled in Heat 6 ahead of a good battle for second place, with Swiderski making an error on lap three to allow Sitera past, only to reclaim the place with a good effort next time around.
Heat 7 was shared with Harris making things look straightforward in near-track record pace, but Heat 8 was one of the best of the night which Frampton clear at the front, but another fine scrap for second as Lanham came inside Sitera off the second bend, with Sitera's challenge on the last bend falling just short at the line.
The run of 5-1s for Schlein and Kennett came to an unfortunate end in Heat 9 as both had gated well, only for Schlein to lift on the first bend and force his team-mate rather wider than he would have wanted. Swiderski came through to lead, but he was quickly hunted down by Schlein, who re-passed him at the start of the second lap.
King took the black-and-white helmet colour in Heat 10, and nearly made it in the early stages, but Nicholls quickly took control of proceedings and limited the tactical ride to four points.
Hampel again gated well in Heat 11, but Harris was in no mood to relinquish his unbeaten tag and as the two raced together for the first half-lap, Harris made it round the outside off the fourth bend - and a smart move from Kennett on Tobias Kroner early in Heat 12 put the Bees into a 13-point lead.
Any chance Ipswich had of a point depended on Hampel taking six from Heat 13, when he faced the unbeaten Harris and Nicholls, and it was another fine race with Hampel making the start but being overtaken by Harris on turns three and four, with the two riders battling to the end with Nicholls also in the equation.
Schlein comfortably defeated King in Heat 14 to make it four wins out of four, and Bees' maximum men maintained their unbeaten runs in the last race, although again Hampel found himself in front of Harris, only to go too wide at the start of the second lap and give the Bees skipper a route through.
The 14 race wins and two maximum scorers were the impressive statistics of the night, and after a weekend which it would be fair to describe as interesting, the Buildbase Bees appear now to be very much back at full strength.
BUILDBASE BEES 55 Scott Nicholls 3 3 3 1 = 10 Filip Sitera 0 1 1 0 = 2 Edward Kennett 2* 2* 1 3 = 8+2 Rory Schlein 3 3 3 3 3 = 15 Chris Harris 3 3 3 3 2* = 14+1 Ricky Wells X 0 0 1 = 1 Jordan Frampton X 1 3 1 = 5
IPSWICH 36 Jarek Hampel 2 1 2 4^ 1 = 10 Leigh Lanham 1* 0 2 1* = 4+2 Tobias Kroner 0 1* 1* 2 = 4+2 Daniel King 1 2 4^ 2 = 9 Piotr Swiderski 2 2 2 0 0 = 6 Dawid Stachyra N N N N = 0 Kozza Smith 3 N N N = 3
