SWINDON Robins put in a spirited display on a damp night in Coventry as they were pipped to the victory in the final heat.

Coventry Bees secured the 47-43 point victory as Danny King and guest Max Fricke combined for a maximum in heat 15 and inflict the defeat on Alun Rossiter’s side.

A heavy rain shower, about an hour prior to the scheduled start of the meeting, left several patches of standing water on the track.

After a track inspection taken by both teams it was agreed to let the meeting go ahead, with a delayed start of 8pm.

Peter Kildemand made his first start since returning to cover for injured Darcy Ward, while Lewis Rose was back from a month on the sidelines to replace Robert Branford.

For the hosts Fricke came in to guest and they had former Swindon rider Kyle Howarth in their team for the first time since re-signing for the Bees.

It took until the first bend of heat one before we had our first fall of the night as Troy Batchelor went into the air fence and the referee ordered a restart with all four rider.

Chris Harris started well on the re-run and was followed into the first bend by Howarth, who Summers took on the back straight of the second, to give the hosts an early advantage.

On his return Jason Garrity got the jump on the rest in heat two and Charles Wright and Rose did well to get past James Sarjeant coming out of the second bend for a share of the points.

It was another split heat in the third race as Fricke got the inside line and kept Grzegorz Zengota behind him, with teammate Nick Morris taking the Pole underneath out of bend two.

Fricke survived a late push from Zengota to keep the Bees two point advantage.

On the second running of heat four Hans Andersen was excluded when he came together with Rose on the back-straight, with the Danes drive chain being ripped out in the process.

Kildemand started the re-run well again on his return to the Robins to take the win and bring the scores back level.

Summers gave Swindon a two point lead in the next heat as he started well to take the lead, with Howarth just coming out of bend two in front of Wright.

Batchelor out of the blocks first in heat six and held onto the lead with Andersen and King teaming up to keep Zengota at the back.

At the fourth time of asking heat seven got under way and It was Fricke who claimed his second win in as many races to pull the hosts back level.

The hosts then put the pedal down as wins for Sarjeant in heat eight, followed by a victory for Garrity in heat nine secured back-to-back maximums for the Bees.

Swindon were able to respond immediately as Summers and Batchelor combined for a maximum of their own in heat 10.

Zengota and Morris then combined to get Swindon back on level terms, with Harris able to take the Aussie coming out of bend two, before the Brit then got out of shape in bend four to hand second spot back to Morris.

The Robins were back in front after heat 12 when Rose beat Garrity out of the second bend to take the narrow two point advantage.

With Batchelor excluded from the re-run of heat 13 for going down in the first bend, Polish rider Zengota did enough to take a split of the points and maintain Swindon’s narrow advantage.

King did well to go all the way around the outside of bends one and two to claim the win in heat 14 and, with Andersen taking Morris on the penultimate lap for third spot, the Bees levelled things up going into the final heat.

With it all on the final heat the hosts’ King and Fricke got off to the perfect start and held off a strong challenge to take the maximum and secure the win for the home side but four points.

COVENTRY BEES: Chris Harris (3,1,1,1*) 6+1, Kyle Howarth (1,2,2*,0) 5+1, Danny King (0,1*,1,3,3) 8+1, Hans Andersen (FX,2,2*,1) 5+1, Max Fricke (3,3,0,2,2*) 10+1, Jason Garrity (3,0,3,2) 8, James Sarjeant (0,2,3,0) 5

SWINDON ROBINS: Troy Batchelor (0,3,2*,fx) 5+1, Aaron Summers (2,3,0,3) 8, Nick Morris (1*,0,2*,0) 3+2, Peter Kildemand (3,2,FX,2,1) 8, Grzegorz Zengota (2,0,3,3,0) 8, Charles Wright (2,1,1,1) 5, Lewis Rose (1*,1,1,3) 6+1