Elite League
Coventry Speedway: Match preview - Bees v Peterborough Panthers
By Nick
Jul 3, 2009, 20:16

COVENTRY Buildbase Bees have called up Eastbourne's Lewis Bridger to make a guest appearance in Friday's vital home clash with Peterborough (8pm).

Bridger, who has recently taken over the No.1 position at Arlington, comes in for Rory Schlein who, like skipper Chris Harris, is away on World Championship duty.

The Buildbase Bees use the rider-replacement facility for Harris, with all members of the team eligible for an extra ride - including Scott Nicholls, who makes the final appearance of his short-term stint with the club before switching to Ipswich next week.

Edward Kennett takes over as captain for the night, and Robert Ksiezak gets an outing at reserve alongside Ricky Wells.

Peterborough also have two riders missing, and they use rider-replacement for Kenneth Bjerre, with 17-year-old sensation Darcy Ward coming in as a guest for Ales Dryml.

Bees have been beaten twice at the Showground this season but won the previous Brandon clash by five points, the meeting finishing in high drama with the almost unbelievable 0-0 result in Heat 14 when all four riders were disqualified.

The Panthers went ahead of the Buildbase Bees in the league table on Thursday night with a 48-42 win over Eastbourne, but they did drop a point in the process and have ridden three more home matches than Coventry.

Bees promoter Colin Pratt said: "This is a difficult weekend with it being GP qualifiers, but hopefully Lewis will do a good job as guest as it's going to be a tough meeting for us.

"The top two seem to be running away with things at the moment, but we're still giving it our all to finish as high as possible and reach the play-offs."

BUILDBASE BEES: Scott Nicholls, Chris Harris R/R, Edward Kennett, Lewis Bridger, Filip Sitera, Robert Ksiezak, Ricky Wells.

PETERBOROUGH: Niels-Kristian Iversen, Darcy Ward, Mads Korneliussen, Kenneth Hansen, Kenneth Bjerre R/R, Henning Bager, Claus Vissing.