RIVAL clubs will unite tomorrow night as Poole Pirates host Coventry Bees for the first time since the club’s axe from the SGB Premiership.
Bees raced their first ‘challenge series’ fixture last Monday at Wolverhampton.
And now the Brandon outfit are set to do battle with their Dorset rivals once more at Wimborne Road.
Travelling fans were boosted by the news that Bees will have the services of Elite League title winning duo Alun Rossiter and Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris in Dorset.
Rossiter, now boss of Swindon Robins and Team GB, will be back in charge for Bees’ latest fixture while Harris, who now races for SGB Premiership newcomers Rye House, will don the black and gold race jacket once more.
Tomorrow’s meeting also presents a further opportunity for fans to back our ‘Save Our Bees’ campaign.
Launched in February, our campaign has two aims.
1. Getting the world-famous Coventry Bees back on track for the 2018 SGB Premiership season.
2. Ensuring a long-term plan is developed so the Bees can look forward to a bright future away from their Brandon home once a potential lease ends.
Prior to tapes up, fans of both teams will have the opportunity to be snapped by our reporters – showing their support for our campaign and to voice their memories of Bees vs Pirates battles from years gone by.
Those who cannot attend tomorrow night’s match will be able to follow our live blog online with race-by-race updates from trackside.
It’s been seven years since the Grand Final drama of 2010 which saw Coventry travel to Wimborne Road holding a 12 point lead following a 51-39 win against the Pirates at Brandon a week earlier.
Man of the hour Chris Harris was unavoidably run over by team-mate Lewis Bridger in the first staging of Heat 6 during the second leg, only to defy the pain and get the better of Chris Holder in a truly epic re-run.
Harris was then unbeaten for the remainder of the meeting as the Bees completed an unbelievable overall triumph having been second from bottom in the Elite League table just five weeks before the play-offs.
Rossiter’s two-year stint in charge was a shorter period in the club’s proud history, but also hugely memorable.
It wasn’t just the title triumph, but also for the arrival of exciting talents such as Przemyslaw Pawlicki and Emil Sayfutdinov into Coventry colours.
The Coventry-Poole rivalry in the Elite League pre-dated Rossiter’s involvement, and also continued beyond it.
Pirates won the Grand Final between the clubs in 2003 before the Bees eliminated the Pirates in the play-offs on their way to the Treble in 2007.
In 2014, they met again in the Grand Final with Poole taking the honours after narrowly winning a controversial first leg at Brandon.
While in 2015 the Pirates were clear winners in the semi-finals as the Bees’ injuries caught up with them.
Despite Coventry’s less than successful 2016 campaign, they did beat Poole twice at Brandon, and Gary Havelock’s time in charge of the club also included two exciting away wins at Wimborne Road.
Coventry Bees have placed on record their thanks to Poole promoter Matt Ford and the rest of the Poole management for their help in making sure tomorrow’s fixture takes place.
