COVENTRY 44 KINGS LYNN 46
COVENTRY: KINGS LYNN:
J.Screen 2 3 3 2 3 3 1 17 R.Correy 1 2 3 2 2' 10(1)
St.Robson R 1 1 3 2'R 7(1) R.Kessler 3 T X 0 2' 5(1)
B.Hamill Rider Replacement S.Andersson Rider Replacement
A.Jonsson 0 0 1'1' 2(2) D.Meldrum 2'1 0 0 3(1)
P.Hurry E 3 0 3 0 6 L.Adams 3 3 2 3 1'3 15(1)
Sc.Robson 2 2'1 2 7(1) T.McGowan 0 0 0 2 3 5
S.Tacey 1'1 2'1 5(2) P.Lee 3 2'1'1 1 0 8(2)
HEAT DETAILS:
Ht 1:Kessler, Screen, Correy, St.Robson(ret), 66.2 2-4 2-4
Ht 2:Lee, Sc.Robson, Tacey, McGowan, 66.1 3-3 5-7
Ht 3:Adams, Meldrum, St.Robson, Jonsson, 65.0 1-5 6-12
Ht 4:Adams, Lee, Tacey, Hurry(ef), 64.8 1-5 7-17
Ht 5:Screen, Correy, Lee, Jonsson, Kessler(t),64.9 3-3 10-20
Ht 6:Screen, Adams, St.Robson, McGowan, 64.7 4-2 14-22
Ht 7:Hurry, Sc.Robson, Meldrum, Kessler(exc), 65.7 5-1 19-23
Ht 8:St.Robson, Tacey, Lee, Kessler, 65.0 5-1 24-24
Ht 9:Adams, Screen, Jonsson, McGowan, 64.2 3-3 27-27
Ht10:Screen, St.Robson, Lee, Meldrum, 65.4 5-1 32-28
Ht11:Correy, Kessler, Sc.Robson, Hurry, 65.3 1-5 33-33
Ht12:Hurry, McGowan, Tacey, Lee, 65.2 4-2 37-35
Ht13:Screen, Correy, Adams, Hurry, 64.6 3-3 40-38
Ht14:McGowan, Sc.Robson, Tacey, Meldrum, 64.8 3-3 43-41
Ht15:Adams, Correy, Screen, St.Robson(ret), 95.9 1-5 44-46
TAKE A LOOK AGAIN AT the Kings Lynn line-up for this fixture, and when you take out Leigh Adams and Ronnie Correy you are left with a complete lack of a third heat-leader, two Premier League second-strings, and another rider who has never ridden Coventry before. So how on earth were they allowed to win?
It came down to two factors - track and attitude, not necessarily in that order. The track went from being unbelievably slick last week to even slicker this, and again it was comfortably possible to count overtaking manoevres with one hand. Times that were three seconds outside what you would normally expect merely confirmed that it was almost impossibly difficult to race. Attitude, perhaps, is a word that needs to be translated into Swedish.
It was always likely to be a peculiar meeting given the number of guests on show, but Heat 1 saw both No.1s eclipsed by Robbie Kessler, who made the best start from gate 3 and fended off Joe Screen, who just had the power to get round Ronnie Correy on the first bend but wasn't able to get any further. A spluttering Stuart Robson retired from last place.
Scott Robson enjoyed a successful evening points-wise, and there was certainly no way that the defeat could be attributed to him, but there was no doubt that he got in Shaun Tacey's way in Heat 2, and then failed to move to the outside quickly enough, allowing Paul Lee around the outside for a win. Then things took a disastrous turn - rider replacement Leigh Adams won Heat 3 in a stroll, but unbelievably neither Stuart Robson or Andreas Jonsson could get any sort of challenge on David Meldrum!
Adams was being threatened in Heat 4 by Paul Hurry until the Coventry guest shed a chain, doing well to stay on his machine and fortunately being avoided by Lee and Tacey. The result, though, was another Knights 5-1 and they had raced into a 10-point lead.
Tactical substitute Screen became the first Coventry race winner in Heat 5, but Jonsson showed little interest in battling with Lee, after Kessler had been excluded for tape-touching, so it was Heat 6 before Bees started to pull some ground back, largely thanks to an excellent first corner by Screen to inflict Adams's first defeat of the night. Stuart Robson's third place over Travis McGowan knocked the gap down to eight points.
A bizarre start to Heat 7 virtually handed Bees a 5-1, with Kessler somehow riding straight into Meldrum and earning himself another exclusion. Hurry and Scott Robson then easily did what Jonsson couldn't - beat Meldrum. And the scored were levelled in Heat 8 with Tacey and Stuart Robson gating ahead of Lee and Kessler to put together another Coventry 5-1.
Adams was back on-form to defeat Screen in Heat 9, but that wasn't the full story of the race. With Jonsson again at the back, McGowan tried a kamikaze lunge inside Screen and inevitably drifted wide as Screen closed him out. Jonsson suddenly went chasing after McGowan and went round the outside as if his opponent wasn't there to pick up his first point of the evening.
Screen and Stuart Robson combined for a 5-1 in Heat 10 over Meldrum and a fading Lee, and it looked like Coventry had seen off the Kings Lynn challenge. But a poor start by Hurry, and a failed attempt to pass Kessler which even resulted in Scott Robson moving into third place allowed the German to team up with Correy for a 5-1 response to level the scores at 33-33.
McGowan, who noticeably improved as the meeting went on, scored a useful two points in Heat 12 as he split Hurry and Tacey, but this put Bees two points to the good. Heat 13 was undoubtedly the best of the night with Screen putting in plenty of effort to pass Correy on the second lap - and then, with Hurry attempting to challenge the American, he moved off the line and Adams slipped into third place.
One rider should have won Heat 14 by a country mile. The same rider had the ability, even having gone wide on the first bend after making fractionally the best start, to go round Scott Robson and McGowan in one manoevre at virtually any stage of the race. But Jonsson stayed where he was, Robson rode in spirited fashion, and McGowan won.
So it was a last heat decider and Kings Lynn needed a 5-1 to win. Somehow, despite the excellent job that Screen did for Coventry, it didn't seem at all unlikely, and the race was decided with exactly 5 laps and 280 metres to go as Screen lifted on his way to the first bend and got squeezed between Correy and Adams, who then raced away to win, to the delight of the Knights fans.
All in all, a most forgettable evening, and there were certainly some disappointed people around after another meeting lacking in entertainment. Coventry clearly missed the driving force of their two Americans, but you were left with the feeling that some serious questions needed to be asked and answered in the Coventry pits.