BRITISH Champion Danny King says he was pleased to see the Coventry supporters had turned out in force despite the 53-39 challenge defeat to Wolverhampton at Monmore Green, writes Observer speedway reporter Robin Allen.
However the Bees suffered a double blow with Josh Bates missing the meeting through injury which meant a late call-up for Stefan Nielsen at reserve.
The rider replacement facility was used for Lewis Kerr, who missed out because of illness.
King told The Observer: “It is great to see all the Coventry fans last night because it is nice for them to see some speedway again.
“The fans have obviously lost out more than anyone else, but we have got more of these challenge meetings coming up so hopefully they will travel and support the team.
“It was a tough one for myself, I could not seem to make any clean starts early on but I managed to sort it and win my third ride which sort of summed the track up tonight because there was not much passing.”
The home side were up for the challenge as Freddie Lindgren and Kyle Howarth romped to an opening 5-1 over King and Lasse Bjerre in heat one.
Stefan Nielsen then showed his liking to the tight turns of Monmore Green with an excellent win over reining British Under-19 champion Max Clegg with a Bees’ 4-2 in the next heat.
Scores stayed close until heat five, when Adam Skornicki and Jacob Thorssell showed their power on home shale with a 5-1 with Wolves leading 19-11.
In heat seven, Bjerre secured an excellent win over Sam Masters while Jason Garrity got past Clegg for Bees’ 4-2 cutting their hosts lead to 24-18.
Back-to-back heat advantages in heats nine and ten put Wolves 12 points up, and despite a Coventry 4-2 in the following heat, team manager Colin Pratt decided to put Jason Garrity on a tactical ride in the next heat.
However, Skornicki rolled back the years with the win which limited the visitors to a 5-3 heat advantage despite the best efforts of Garrity with four points for second place.
And then two heat advantages in the final three heats secured a comfortable 14 –point win for the Wolves.
