Lakeside Hammers 49, Coventry Bees 41
STUART Robson was the hero of the hour as he led Hammers to victory over former club Coventry.
Robson (pictured) was in supreme form, racing to 17 points as he racked up his highest ever score in Hammers colours. And how it was needed by the home side, who had a few members of the side off colour as Coventry maintained a threatening presence throughout the meeting.
Despite a thumping 5-1 from Lee Richardson and Kauko Nieminen in the opening race the Hammers were kept under a tight leash by the Bees, who threatened immediately to retort with one of their own maximums in the very next race - only for Robson to perform the first of many heroics and take the lead after Paul Hurry had fallen.
There was controversy a plenty in the third race when Edward Kennett took a second lap tumble on the first turn while on his own at the back - and there were many in the home support who felt that the Bees number three had remained on track to cause a race stoppage, particularly with the Davidsson brothers, Jonas and Daniel. sprinting away to victory over Ben Barker. The race was indeed stopped, although as Kennett quickly leapt to the centre green he left his bike in situ and said machine was clipped by Jonas as he tried to slow.
Thankfully Jonas was none the worse but Barker duly took victory in the restart and this seemed to give Bees the impetus to remain in close proximity throughout the meeting.
Several good races followed, particularly in heat four when Robson brought the house down as he passed Chris Harris on the third lap to take a stunning victory. It was the turn of former Hammers number Kris Kasprzak in the next, aiming to make amends for his opening race blip he too performed an outside sweep, this time over Jonas Davidsson.
Kennett's evening of woe continued when he suffered a bike failure on the second lap of heat even and Bees had a scare in the eight when new reserve Przemyslaw Pawlicki careered into the fence on turn four after grabbing too much speed exiting the corner.
Hammers lost Daniel Davidsson before the start of heat nine with reports of a ricked neck and this afforded Robson the chance to take further rides. He was avenged by Harris in that particular race as the Bees kept the meeting in check.
With the Hammers just four points to the good heat 13 was vital , as is so often the case, as fears of a home slip up loomed. To the fore, then, came Richardson and Shields, as they pieced together a collection of lightning fast starts to take victory over Harris and Kasprzak.
Robson completed his night's work with victory in his seventh and final outing in heat 14 as Jonas Davidsson joined him to ensure the destiny of all three Elite League points was Essex bound.
1: Richardson, Nieminen, Kasprzak, Bridger (5-1) 58.2
2: Robson, Pawlicki, Auty, Hurry (3-3) (8-4) 58.6
3: Barker, J Davidsson, D Davidsson, Kennett (fell exc) (3-3) (11-7) 58.8
4: Robson, Harris, Shields, Pawlicki (fell exc) (4-2) (15-9) awarded, no time
5: Kasprzak, J Davidsson, Bridger, D Davidsson (2-4) (17-13) 57.6
6: Harris, Richardson, Nieminen, Auty (3-3) (20-16) 57.8
7: Shields, Barker, Hurry, Kennett (ret) (4-2) (24-18) 58.3
8: Bridger, Robson, Nieminen, Pawlicki (fell exc) (3-3) (27-21) 58.2
9: Harris, Robson, Auty, J Davidsson (2-4) (29-25) 58.0
10: Kennett, Nieminen, Richardson, Barker (3-3) (32-28) 57.6
11: Kasprzak, Robson, Shields, Bridger (fell exc) (3-3) (35-31) 57.7
12: Barker, Robson, Hurry, Auty (3-3) (38-34) 58.8
13: Shields, Richardson, Kasprzak, Harris (5-1) (43-35) 58.2
14: Robson, J Davidsson, Pawlicki, Kennett (ret) (5-1) (48-36) 59.2
15: Kasprzak, Barker, Shields, Nieminen (1-5) (49-41) 57.6