Official Buildbase Coventry Bees Website: RORY SCHLEIN

RORY SCHLEIN - Australia - Date of Birth: 01/09/84

British career history: Sheffield (CL, 2001-02), Edinburgh (2001-04), Belle Vue (d/up 2003-04), Coventry (2005-present), Ipswich (loan, 2008)

RORY returns to Coventry for a sixth season with the club - a stint interrupted by a brief loan spell at Ipswich in the final two months of the 2008 campaign.

He joined the Bees in the winter of 2004/05 after showing a liking for the Brandon circuit in his visits with Belle Vue, with whom he was doubling-up, but his first season with the club was wrecked when a back injury ruled him out for two-thirds of the campaign.

But he showed no ill-effects from that when he returned in 2006 and added around a point and a half to his average - despite missing (just!) a month with a broken leg in August.

In 2007, he formed part of a powerful heat-leader trio with Scott Nicholls and Chris Harris on the way to the Treble, his greatest night coming in the second leg of the Elite League Grand Final against Swindon when he dropped just one point in six rides.

He saw his average drop during the early weeks of the 2008 season, although various set-up changes saw him recover form in the summer, before speedway's 'numbers game' saw him make way in an August re-shuffle. But Ipswich were always in the frame for his services, and it turned out to be a mutually beneficial move as he fully regained top form, and finished second in the Elite League Riders' Championship at Birmingham.

He was recalled by his parent club in 2009 and was hitting a rich vein of form in mid-season before suffering multiple injuries in an horrific crash at Brandon in July - from which he bravely battled back to make his comeback just a month later.

Less than fully fit, his average returned to almost exactly where it had started - 7.25 - but that leaves Rory as potentially one of the most powerful third heat leaders in the 2010 Elite League, with the ability to beat any rider on any circuit.