Lakeside Hammers 43, Coventry Bees 47
HAMMERS team owner Stuart Douglas today issued an apology to the fans after the home campaign fizzled out in a disappointing fashion.

"I hold my hands up for the shambles of a farewell last night - the riders did not do themselves justice on track, and we let ourselves down off track, too", said Douglas.

"The events of the last few weeks has taken its toll and to say that Jon Cook and I are gutted is a total understatement. The shock of another home defeat in a Final put our farewell parade plans into some kind of arrest, and in my disappointment I did not show enough leadership to get the riders out to see the fans before the majority had left the stadium. For that I can only apologise.

"The fans attend week in, week out and they deserve the opportunity to show the riders how much they appreciate what has been - all things considered - a highly successful season. It's such a shame that the season long hard graft was marked with a final whimper at home".

Going on to analyse the performance, Douglas added "We knew it was a significantly stronger Coventry team we were facing than the one we would have met had the meeting taken place earlier in the year as stipulated, but sadly not enforced.

"We were also aware that we looked exposed at reserve with Ricky Kling's dramatic loss of form and yet another injury ruling out new reserve, Kryszstof Jablonski. If you return one point from eight rides at reserve, however, you will probably lose the meeting, and thus it turned out. I expect nothing less than a total, all out assault of Coventry next Friday for the return leg, where Ricky is capable of riding extremely well, and Jablonski should find to his liking also.

"We need each and every Hammer to ride like its his last ride in a final effort to wrest some reward for all our work this year".

Hammers were on the backfoot as early as heat two when the Coventry reserves collected a 5-1.

The reserve strength in the Bees' tail was evident throughout as the pairing of Filip Sitera and Ben Barker collected paid 19 points between them.

Barker in particular was in superb form, taking a 14 point haul that included three race victories.

The Hammers managed to reverse that heat two maximum with one of their own in the next race, with Tomasz Jedrzejak showing the fast starting that would hold him in good stead throughout the meeting.

He made a quick re-appearance in heat four but was beaten to the first turn by Barker, who rode a mature race to keep his Polish opponent at bay.

Bees lost the services of Oliver Allen after a heat one fall and one trailing appearance in heat five signalled the end of this involvement with injury.

With their reserves in such fine fettle, replacements were not deterimental to the Bees' cause and if anything the duo raised their game further as the meeting progressed.

It took an excellent ride from Leigh Lanham to drive around the outside of Sitera in heat six but this effort was nullified when Ricky Kling was caught napping on the line by Billy Janniro in the following race.

Kling's evening was summed up by the startline engine failure in heat eight and overall the Swede endured a disappointing night in scoring just a solitary point.

Fast-starting Barker was passed by Andreas Jonsson in the ninth and the Swede quickly repeated the feat in the very next heat, teaming up with Lanham for a score-levelling 4-2 over Chris Harris.

Consecutive 4-2s for the Bees edged them ever closer to victory but Jonsson had other ideas in heat thirteen.

Riding a beautifully controlled inside line, AJ pinned Hans Andersen to the curb and saw partner Jedrzejak home for a 5-1 and ended the maximum hopes of the Coventry number one.

With the scores level, Barker finished off his evening the same way it started with another victory, this time over Davidsson. Janniro got the better of Kling for third to leave the Bees two up going into the final race.

As the tapes rose, Andersen edged clear as Jonsson prepared to charged. It looked briefly as though Jonsson would come through, but Andersen was just able to hold on by clinging to the curb.

It proved academic, though, as Jedrzejak was beaten into third by Harris and the Bees' heat advantage was enough to take a four point lead on the night.

Hammers: 1. Andreas Jonsson 15+1; 2. Leigh Lanham 8+1; 3. Rider Replacement; 4. Jonas Davidsson 7+2; 5. Tomasz Jedrzejak 12; 6. Ricky Kling 1; 7. Chris Mills 0.

Bees: 1. Hans Andersen 13; 2. Oliver Allen 0; 3. Chris Harris 9; 4. Billy Janniro 3; 5. Simon Stead 4+1; 6. Filip Sitera 4+2; 7. Ben Barker 14.

1: Andersen, Jonsson, Lanham, Allen (fell exc) (3-3) (3-3) 59.7
2: Barker, Sitera, Kling, Mills (1-5) (4-8) 62.0
3: Jedrzejak, Davidsson, Janniro, Harris (5-1) (9-9) 60.4
4: Barker, Jedrzejak, Stead, Mills (2-4) (11-13) 61.2
5: Andersen, Lanham, Davidsson, Allen (ret ) (3-3) (14-16) 60.2
6: Jonsson, Stead, Lanham, Sitera (4-2) (18-18) 59.4
7: Harris, Jedrzejak, Janniro, Kling (2-4) (20-22) 59.2
8: Lanham, Barker, Sitera, Kling (ret) (3-3) (23-25) 59.8
9: Jonsson, Barker, Stead, Davidsson (3-3) (26-28) 58.7
10: Jonsson, Harris, Lanham, Janniro (4-2) (30-30) 58.2
11: Andersen, Jedrzejak, Barker, Kling (ret) (2-4) (32-34) 59.2
12: Harris, Davidsson, Sitera, Mills (2-4) (34-38) 59.2
13: Jedrzejak, Jonsson, Andersen, Stead (5-1) (39-39) 59.6
14: Barker, Davidsson, Janniro, Kling (2-4) (41-43) 59.3
15: Andersen, Jonsson, Harris, Jedrzejak (2-4) (43-47) 58.9