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Elite League B Fixture : Thursday 8th July 2010
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The Hammers left Brandon Stadium, Coventry, with no League points and with Wolves gaining an away win at Ipswich the Wolves move further ahead of the Hammers in second place in the table. A home win by Swindon also sees the Robins move closer to a possible play-off position.
The defeat at the hands of the Bees was a disappointment as they had managed to keep things fairly close in the early stages of the meeting despite the absence of No.1 Lee Richardson with a knee injury. The 'Rider Replacement' facility was used to cover his rides and that amassed just seven points. Jonas Davidsson was also missing from the Hammers line-up as the Swede is still recovering from a broken cheekbone. Former Coventry rider Rory Schlein was brought in as a guest and the Australian put in a good performance at his old home track scoring 14 points from his six rides.
The Hammers captain, Adam Shields, led the scorechart with 15 points from his six rides, which included 4 points in his fifth ride when taking a 'Tactical Ride'.
The opening few heats saw controversy. The track seemed to be causing riders of both teams problems early on, especially the exit to the fourth bend. Ht 1 saw Adam Shields and Lewis Bridger fall in separate incidents. The Hammers captain was the first to fall and there was, therefore, some surprise when the referee put on the exclusion lights for both riders when he stopped the race. Adam's bike was still under power and he was getting back onto his machine at the time and after a short delay the re-run was ordered with just the exclusion of Bridger, much to the bemusement of the home supporters. Adam was easily able to hold off the attentions of former Hammers rider. Krzysztof Kasprzak and Kauko Nieminen picked up the remaining point for third place.
Paul Hurry got a bit of a 'flyer' in heat two and all four riders were brought back to the start for the re-run. Paul then broke the tapes and was then due to come back in off 15 metres but he failed to beat the two minute time allowance that was immediately put on by the referee as he couldn't get off the track as the start line staff wanted to remove the tapes from his wheel. This meant that the Hammers went into this heat with just Stuart Robson. He managed to split the Bees pairing but the resultant home 4-2 levelled the score at 6 points apiece.
The Hammers guest, Rory Schlein, led into the first bend of heat 3 but the red lights came on bringing the race to a halt. The TV replay showed that Rory had not moved at the start and he, therefore, felt hard done by. The Bees pairing of Barker and Kennett made no mistake second time around and the 5-1 scoreline put the Bees somewhat fortuitously 4 points up.
The next two heats were shared with Adam and Rory claiming the wins but their partners seemed to struggle somewhat at the back of the field.
At this stage of the meeting gates 3 and 4 seemed to be advantageous, particularly the outside gate 4. Heat 6 saw the Bees reserve Richard Sweetman take advantage of this outside gate to inflict the first defeat of the night on Adam but Paul had no answer to the speed of Kasprzak so the resultant 4-2 extended the Bees lead to 6 points.
The Hammers immediately hit back with a 5-1 in heat 8 with Kauko claiming the win, after having changed to his second bike following just a solitary point from his first two rides. He was followed home by Robbo who was, as usual, always in the action. The Bees retained their slender 2 point lead over the next 2 races following heats 9 & 10 being shared. Paul picked up an important point in both heats and his performance in heat 9 was impressive as he managed to keep Edward Kennett at the back.
Having already used Adam and Rory as replacements for Lee it meant that the Hammers needed to up their game in the latter stages of the meeting if they were going to leave with some of the important League points up for grabs.
The meeting was effectively lost by the Hammers in heats 11 and 12 as the Bees managed maximum heat advantages in both of these races. Chris Harris team rode their guest, Shane Parker, to the 5-1 in heat 11 and Ben Barker and Richard Sweetman easily saw off Daniel Davidsson and Paul Hurry in heat 11 despite Daniel making his only good start from his 3 races only to go from first to last between the apex of the first bend and the exit to the second.
With the Hammers now being 10 point behind Adam came out in the next heat wearing the Black and White helmet colour. He made a good start but Harris managed to get past the Hammers captain down the back straight and with Kauko Nieminen at the back it meant a shared 4-4 heat.
The meeting was now lost but the Hammers still stood a chance in taking a League point by restricting the defeat to a maximum of 6 points. That meant they needed a strong performance in the final two heats. Things looked promising in the penultimate race when Rory and Robbo held the minor positions behind the fast gating Edward Kennett. That would have meant that the Hammers would have required a 5-1 in the final heat but disaster struck on the first bend of the final lap as Robbo fell. That saw the Bees take a fortuitous 4-2 and, therefore, secure all 3 League points.
The final heat initially looked as though Rory and Adam were going to get a 5-1 but Harris managed to get past Adam for a Hammers 4-2.
The final scoreline of 51-41 in favour of the Bees was disappointing to the Hammers side of the pits but, at the end of the day, the defeat could be put down to the second string riders not performing to their known abilities. In addition the Bees reserves, who usually both perform in the Premier League, outscored the Hammers full time Elite League reserves by 17 points to just 8. The Hammers provided 6 of the 15 heat winners but worryingly had 10 of the 15 last places.
The Hammers will need to put in a far improved performance if they are to claim any League points from their next away match, which is on Wednesday 14th July when they travel down to Dorset to face Poole, who are well clear at the top of the table.
 Related Link: Match Details
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