STOKE fought out 29-29 draw against the Coventry Bees’ in the Travel Plus National League at Loomer Road on Saturday night after the meeting was curtailed after tens heats due to rain with the result standing.

With rain falling at the start of the meeting SCB referee James McGregor pushed the meeting on and the A.R. Richards Potters went behind early on as the Bees’ gained a 4-2 in heat two as Luke Harris took the chequered flag ahead of Paul Burnett with Ryan MacDonald taking third place.

The Bees’ slender two-point lead was held until heat six when Potters guest Tom Perry took his second victory of the evening over Jon Armstrong with Adam Extance holding Harris at bay for third place levelling the scores up at 18-18.

Coventry struck back immediately as Danny Phillips and Luke Ruddick combined for a 4-2 over Connor Coles before there was drama in the next race as MacDonald fell and was excluded from the rerun. Referee McGregor then announced that MacDonald’s partner Jamie Halder would have to go off 15 metres after declaring that MacDonald stayed down deliberately with the home pairing of Extance and Burnett had been on a 5-1. In the rerun Halder roared off the start and managed to overhaul the Potters pairing before Burnett then fell causing the race to again be stopped and Burnett excluded resulting in the race being awarded a 3-2 to the Bees’ extended Coventry’s lead 22-25.

There was more drama to follow as conditions deteriorated as the rain was getting heavier and David Wallinger fell he had just got up then former Potters skipper Armstrong fell and both riders were excluded from the rerun. Rob Shuttleworth made no mistake comfortably beating Harris for a Potters 3-2 advantage.

Stoke drew level in heat ten as Perry took his third race win ahead of Ruddick with Extance taking third to level the scores up at 29 all and after a discussion between both sets of riders and the referee proceedings were concluded.

Potters skipper Rob Shuttleworth commented “It’s disappointing we didn’t get the win, but conditions were difficult throughout the meeting due to the rain but all the riders did their best from both sides and in the end, it was a fair result. The right decision was made to call a halt to the meeting at the end of the day everyone is going home in one piece and we are ready to go again tomorrow at Mildenhall.”

STOKE 29: Tom Perry 9, Rob Shuttleworth 6+1, Connor Coles 4, Adam Extance 4, David Wallinger 3+1, Paul Burnett 3+1, Joe Alcock 0
COVENTRY 29: Danny Phillips 6, Connor Mountain 5, Jon Armstrong 5, Luke Harris 5, Jamie Halder 4+1, Luke Ruddick 3, Ryan MacDonald 1