Coventry Bees 52, Lakeside Hammers 41

LAKESIDE Hammers facing the daunting, but not impossible, task of clawing back an 11 point disadvantage when they play host to Coventry in the second leg of the Elite League Knock-out Cup semi at Lakeside tomorrow.

The league champs appear to have a firm grip on passage to the final, but diehard Hammers fans will cast their minds back to June 6 and an 11 point win for the Hammers against the Bees in the league A' fixtureat Lakeside. They know it can be done!

Hammers actually led for the first two heats of Friday's meeting at Coventry but the home side fought back and gradually eased their way into a lead as the evening progressed.

The visitors, beaten by 42 points in of their meetings with the Bees this season, showed much more backbone and were led superbly by Swede Andreas Jonsson who won the night's opener and clocked up four more heat wins, including the last of the night to round off a superb individual performance with 18 points to his credit.

Coventry Bees 52:

1. Scott Nicholls 2 3 3 1' 2; 2. Olly Allen RR; 3. Chris Harris 3 2 3 3; 4. Steve Johnson 1 F 1 R; 5. Rory Schlein 3 2 3 2 2 1'; 6. Billy Janniro 0 2 1' 1' 3; 7. Martin Smolinski 1' 2' 1 F 2' 2'.

Lakeside Hammers 41: 1. Andreas Jonsson 3 3 6 3 3; 2. Joonas Kylmakorpi RR; 3. Simon Stead 2 3 0 1; 4. Leigh Lanham 0 1 0 1 2; 5. Adam Shields 1 2 2 2 0 0; 6. Ricky Kling 3 0 0 0 0; 7. Andreas Messing 1 0 1' 0 1'.

Heat-by-heat:

Heat 1: Jonsson, Nicholls, Messing, Janniro 59.2 2-4 (2-4)

Heat 2: Kling, Janniro, Smolinski, Messing 60.9 3-3 (5-7)

Heat 3: Harris, Stead, Johnston, Lanham 58.8 4-2 (9-9)

Heat 4: Schlein, Smolinski, Shields, Kling 60.7 5-1 (14-10)

Heat 5: Jonsson, Harris, Lanham, Johnston(F) 59.1 2-4 (16-14)

Heat 6: Nicholls, Shields, Smolinski, Kling 60.2 4-2 (20-16)

Heat 7: Stead, Schlein, Janniro, Lanham 60.5 3-3 (23-19)

Heat 8: Schlein, Shields, Messing, Smolinski(F) 60.4 3-3 (26-22)

Heat 9: Harris, Shields, Johnston, Kling 60.3 4-2 (30-24)

Heat 10: Nicholls, Smolinski, Lanham, Stead 60.6 5-1 (35-25)

Heat 11: Jonsson (TR), Schlein, Janniro, Messing 60.0 3-6 (38-31)

Heat 12: Harris, Smolinski, Stead, Kling 60.2 5-1 (43-32)

Heat 13: Jonsson, Schlein, Nicholls, Shields 60.6 3-3 (46-35)

Heat 14: Janniro, Lanham, Messing, Johnson(EF) 62.2 3-3 (49-38)

Heat 15: Jonsson, Nicholls, Schlein, Shields 60.2 3-3 (52-41)