STOKE Easy Rider Potters suffered their second heavy defeat in a week as they suffered a 37-55 defeat at the hand of league leaders Coventry Storm in the National League at Loomer Road on Saturday night.

The Potters relied heavily on reserve Shaun Tedham, Lee Smart and Ben Reade before he suffered an ankle injury with the trio scoring twenty nine of the thirty seven points against a solid looking Coventry side who brimmed full of confidence with only Martin Knuckey struggling for the Midlands outfit. Stoke again suffered with the lack of race winners gaining only four out of the fifteen heats.

The meeting started brightly for the Potters with two 4-2 heat advantages in the opening three heats to lead 11-7 but Storm struck with a 5-1 in heat four from Joe Jacobs and James Shanes over Lee Geary and Kyle Hughes who pulled up with a terminal mechanical failure which put paid to his evening levelling the score at 12-12 after the opening four heats.

Coventry then hit the Potters hard with a couple of 4-2 heat advantages and a 5-1 in the next three heats to leave the Potters trailing 17-25 at the midway point of the meeting.

The Potters did strike back in heat eight with a 5-1 from Luke Chessell and Shaun Tedham over Shanes and Knuckey who had fallen while in second place to reduce the deficit to four points, but Storm again pulled away opening a twelve point lead with another couple of 4-2’s and a 5-1 leaving Stoke trailing 27-39 after eleven heats.

Reade came out as a tactical ride in heat twelve but it was former Potter James Sarjeant that took the chequered flag ahead of Reade with Lee Geary taking third for a Potters 5-3 heat advantage.

Coventry sealed a comfortable victory again with a couple of 4-2 heat wins and a 5-1 to take a 37-55 victory to extend their lead at the top of the table.

Potters rider Ben Reade was taken to hospital with a leg injury and the club were awaiting results of x-rays.

Team manager Malcolm Vasey said “After recent improvements we’ve lapsed all the way back again and this was a very disappointing performance. Having said that we had no luck I feel tonight but then again you have to make your own luck and we were far short of that and were beaten by the better side on the night. There is no hiding from the performance tonight and we now have to look at how we can improve things. I can’t say how yet, we’ve got Ben Reade injured and will need to replace him in some way but it’s too early to think of what options are available to us and we’ll be looking at all the options over the next day or so.”

STOKE 37: Shaun Tedham 10+1, Lee Smart 10, Ben Reade 9, Luke Chessell 3, Luke Priest 3, Lee Geary 2+1, Kyle Hughes 0.
COVENTRY 55: Joe Jacobs 14+1, James Sarjeant 13, Oliver Greenwood 11+1, James Shanes 8+2, Luke Crang 8+1, Martin Knuckey 1, Robert Branford R/R.