Even this was not all plain sailing as they had to pullback an early twelve point deficit against Swindon Robins before they could be assured of the two vital league points needed to ease their wooden spoon fears. The previous evening they had run Ipswich close at Foxhall Heath and with Billy Janniro returning after injury on Friday a much more comfortable evening was expected.

Ipswich 50, Bees 43.
Elite League A

Having shown some improvement in their last away match Bees were looking for a good result this time. Bees welcomed Olly Allen back from injury but were still without Billy Janniro and operated rider-replacement. The home side used a similar facility for long-term absentee Chris Louis,
Bees made the best possible start with Chris Harris and Allen taking a 5-1 in a race rerun after Robert Miskowiak had crashed out at the start of the second lap.
Once again however this advantage was lost in heat two when the home reserves returned the compliment.
The sides exchanged 4-2's in the next two heats to keep the scores level.
Stanislaw Burza pulled out of the start of heat six and withdrew from the meeting with a re-occurrence of an apparently long-standing back problem. With Rory Schlein unable to catch Piotr Swiderski, the home side were back ahead.

Ipswich increased their lead to eight points over the next couple of races before a good win by Schlein over Jarek Hampel stopped the rot.
This was only temporary as the Witches scored another maximum over Allen, who was on an ailing machine.

Bees were still not out of it and Harris was given a tactical ride in heat eleven. The home pair gated by Harris forced his way into the lead by turn three. Allen contributed by holding out Miskowiak who had been taken wide on the first turn.

Simon Stead had to work hard in heat twelve to save a 1-5 reverse but two valuable points were dropped.
Bees hit back again in heat thirteen when some good work by Harris on the first turn cleared the way for him to follow Schlein home for maximum points.

Schlein made it two wins on the trot in the next and with Andreas Messing taking a good third place, the match went to a last heat decider.

Despite Harris and Schlein taking a good 5-1 two heats earlier, it did not work this time as the home side sped from the gate to give them the match.

This was the second match in a week that Bees could have won but once again they seemed to lack the killer instinct at the death.

Bees scorers; Harris 14(1), Schlein 14, Allen 7, Stead 5, Messing 2, Burza 1.

Bees 52, Swindon 41.
Elite League A.

Rain put this match in doubt and after five races many may have wished it had intervened.
Bees welcomed back Janniro from injury and Ben Barker replaced Burza. The visitors had injury problems with their reserves and called up Premier League riders Paul Clews and Krzysztof Stojanowski.

The heavy track made racing somewhat processional in the early stages,
Leigh Adams won heat one for the visitors with Harris and Janniro taking the minor places.

Messing started an unhappy evening by being penalised 15 metres for a tapes offence in heat two. Although he made up a lot of ground he could not prevent the visiting pair following Barker home.

Mads Korneliussen and James Wright shot from the gate to take heat three for the visitors.

Schlein lost out into the race for turn one in heat four. The race was stopped after Messing took a nasty fall entering turn three. In the rerun Schlein failed to grasp his second chance and again trailed in third.
At this stage the visitors were sharper from the tapes and after a third successive 5-1 reverse Bees were definitely on the ropes.
Harris was given a tactical ride as early as heat six. He led from the start and with Janniro taking second place after a good battle with Travis McGowan, the fightback had started.

Barker won heat seven and with the struggling Schlein holding on to third Bees were now just three adrift.

Janniro had to fight for second place in heat eight after missing the start. With Barker third another heat reverse was averted.

Stead and Allen had previously on the wrong end of 5-1's but in heat nine they put in one of their own, Allen especially worked hard using the outside line to good effect.

Bees had now inched ahead but Swindon were not out of it yet. It took a determined ride by Harris to take the lead in heat ten after being beaten from the tapes. A determined effort by Janniro for third place just failed.

Schlein was another rider who got his act together after two disappointing opening rides. He was a good winner of heat eleven, inflicting the only defeat of the night on Adams.

The visitors now appeared to be losing heart and Stead and Barker increased the lead to three points.

After Adams won heat thirteen, Bees finished with two maximums to complete what was a magnificent comeback.

Very few people would have given Bees a chance after heat five but after some mid-match discussion, some of the team decided on a change of machine and it seemed to work with the heat leaders especially, scoring the bulk of their points in their latter races.

Bees scorer's; Harris 16, Barker 12 (3), Stead 7(1), Schlein 6(1), Allen 6, Janniro 5(2), Messing 0.

Preview.

Due to the World Team Cup, fans will have to wait a little longer to see Bees in action. It should be worthwhile as Bees host Lakeside on Monday night. Bees will be smarting for revenge as they have yet to beat the Essex side. Led by former Bee, Andreas Jonsson, they won at Brandon in May and then inflicted Bees biggest reverse for a long time when they met at Lakeside at the end of June. The visitors have a solid look about them with another Brandon favourite Joonas Kylmakorpi in their ranks. The match starts at the usual time of 8.00 p.m.

World Team Cup Round 2.

This was a disappointing night for the GB team who fielded a team with vast Brandon experience. The plan did not work as the team finished a distant third behind Denmark and Sweden. At one time they even risked going out of the competition when mid-meeting they found themselves a mere two points ahead of outsiders the Czech republic.

The first fifteen heats yielded just thirteen points and at that stage no race winners. An attempt to catch up using Scott Nicholls as a tactical joker scoring double failed after he was left at the gate and was unable to pass late Czech inclusion Filip Sitera, who had never ridden Brandon before.

Some harsh words at the interval saw some improvement and after a second from Nicholls, Harris recorded what was to be the only race win of the night. They did manage to shake off the Czech republic challenge but were a long way behind the two Scandanavian sides.

Britain now go to the play-off stage in Vojens, Denmark where the meet Sweden, Poland and Russia. If they finish in the top two, they go to the final, again in Vojens, but after Monday it must be a very big 'if''. The final scores were Denmark 63, Sweden 50.5, Britain 25.5, Czech Republic 13.

Alan Goodman.


Darren Boocock.

The speedway fraternity is in shock over the death on Friday July 4th of Darren Boocock and his wife Sharon in a road accident involving their motorcycle and a lorry.

Darren was the son of former long-serving Coventry skipper Nigel Boocock and one-time Coventry Bees mascot. He was born in Rugby and the family lived in Addison Road until Nigel retired and the family emigrated to Australia.

He moved back to England to start a rider career, which was short-lived after a series of injuries.

He became a tireless worker behind the scenes, helping many riders, including former world champion Greg Hancock.

Ironically, when the accident happened they was on their way to lunch before setting out for the meeting at Brandon that evening.

The couple leave a twelve-year-old son Jack who was on a school trip at the time.