Oxford Cheetahs 44, Coventry Bees 51:A magnificent 17-point haul from skipper Todd Wiltshire was not enough for Cheetahs to secure the points against Coventry at Oxford Stadium last night.

With too many riders out of sorts, they were always fighting a losing battle, flattering to deceive in the closing stages when pulling up to within three points behind the Bees.

In fact, Wiltshire was the only home rider to win a heat.

Coventry's trump card was reserve Olly Allen, who ran up a superb paid 15 points.

Seven drawn heats out of the first ten suggested the scores would be mighty close, but the Bees, having swooped for two 5-1s in heats two and four, eased ahead 33-27 at the interval.

It had been a wretched start to the night for Lubos Tomicek. Having been going well when he crashed out in heat two, in his second outing he touched the tapes and was again excluded. He managed to bounce back with a gutsy second place behind the impressive Allen in heat eight.

There were three re-runs in the first three heats, with Coventry's Rory Schlein falling foul of first-bend bunching when hitting the deck, but he recovered quickly for the restart.

We saw the best of British as Chris Harris, second away behind Wiltshire, conjured up a fantastic outside run to collar the Oxford skipper in heat six.

Wiltshire and Eriksson ended a run of five drawn heats by taking the pre-interval event 4-2, but Cheetahs had it all to do in the remaining five heats.

It became almost mission impossible soon after as Nicholls and Allen combined to put the Bees firmly in the driving seat, with Skornicki and Tomicek finding no answer.

Watt came in as a tactical ride in heat 12, and after a disastrous start, he hit back to grab second spot off the last bend.

Wiltshire came out in the next as tactical sub and as he and Skornicki secured a mighty 8-1, Oxford were back in it at 40-43 with two heats to go.

However, all that counted for nothing when Allen and Janniro team-rode the visitors to victory with a 5-1 in a race marred by a spectacular crash by Tomicek, who lost control of his bike and went head over heels yards up the track. He was stretchered off by paramedics.

Cheetahs' problems piled up as Skornicki hit the pits fence hard after a hectic half a lap in the final heat. He was excluded, leaving Wiltshire to try and fend off Nicholls and Harris in the re-run, and he did it in brilliant style to end a great night's action.

Oxford: Wiltshire 17, Watt 7+1, Howe 6+1, Skornicki 5+1, Eriksson 3+2, Tomicek 3, Andersson 3+1. 44pts.

Coventry: Allen 14+1, Harris 10+2, Nicholols 10, Schlein 9+1, Smolinski 4+2, Janniro 4+1. 51pts.