Makeshift Cheetahs crashed to a 65-28 defeat at Coventry to round off a miserable pair of Elite League meetings against the Bees.

They went into the Brandon clash severely weakened, with Piotr Protasiewicz ruled out with a knee injury and Jesper Jensen and Andy Smith absent due to clashing meetings in Poland.

Club owner Colin Horton said: "We had asked for the meeting to be postponed to a later date but Coventry wanted to go ahead and our request was turned down. Our hands were tied."

Cheetahs had to bring in No 8 Henrik Moller as No 1, Newport rider Chris Schramm at No 2 and use rider-replacement for Prot- siewicz.

It was only ever going to be a case of damage limitation against a rampant Coventry side, and they were only partially successful in that respect.

There was more bad news when Ales Dryml crashed out of the meeting in heat seven, sustaining a collarbone injury when he landed heavily after spinning on the fourth bend.

The Bees recorded 5-1's in seven of the first eight races, the only respite coming when Martin Smolinski earned himself an exclusion for bringing down Eric Andersson in heat four.

Fortunately, stand-in skipper Steve Johnston then managed to make an impact as first he ended the maximum hopes of both Scott Nicholls and Billy Janniro by taking a fine win in heat ten.

And then after three more Coventry 5-1's, Johnston won a tactical ride for six points and was joined at the front by Andersson for an 8-1 to the visitors.

Johnston, however, was unable to do anything about Rory Schlein and Chris Harris in the last race as both completed full houses, Harris surging through from the back in the best heat of the night.

Coventry: Schlein 15, Harris 13+2, Janniro 10+4, Nicholls 10+1, Risager 8+2, Smolinski 7+2, Roynon 2+1, Olly Allen r/r. 65pts.

Oxford: Johnston 13, Andersson 6+2, Eriksson 3+1, Dryml 3, Moller 2, Schramm 1, Protasiewicz r/r. 28pts.

HEAT DETAILS Heat 1: Nicholls, Janniro, Schramm, Moller. 60.3 sec.

Heat 2: Smolinski, Risager, Andersson, Eriksson (exc). 62.7.

Heat 3: Schlein, Janniro, Dryml, Johnston. 61.4.

Heat 4: Harris, Dryml, Andersson, Smolinski (exc). 61.5.

Heat 5: Schlein, Roynon, Moller, Schramm. 63.8.

Heat 6: Nicholls, Janniro, Andersson, Eriksson. 62.6.

Heat 7: Harris, Risager, Johnston, Dryml (f, exc). 61.5.

Heat 8: Janniro, Smolinski, Andersson, Schramm. 62.5.

Heat 9: Schlein, Johnston, Eriksson, Roynon. 61.3.

Heat 10: Johnston, Nicholls, Janniro, Andersson. 61.8.

Heat 11: Risager, Harris, Moller, Schramm. 62.2.

Heat 12: Schlein, Smolinski, Eriksson, Andersson. 63.0.

Heat 13: Harris, Nicholls, Eriksson, Moller. 60.8.

Heat 14: Johnston, Andersson, Risager, Smolinski. 62.0.

Heat 15: Schlein, Harris, Johnston, Eriksson. 60.9.