It was an annihilation as Oxford Cheetahs crashed to their heaviest Sky Sports Elite League home defeat last night.

Poor Cheetahs came up against a Coventry Bees side buzzing from the off and they never let their rivals off the hook in front of the Sky TV cameras.

It led to Oxford promoter Aaron Lanney apologising to the fans.

He said: "It was an awful performance and probably the worst home defeat in Cheetahs history."

Team manager Mick Horton said: "No excuses, no defence. We didn't compete, very disappointing, an awful show."

Cheetahs were woeful at the start, trailing the Bees in almost every heat.

And on the rare occasion they did get away from the tapes level, it was only a few metres before they were trailing.

It took Oxford 14 heats to win their only race as Steve Johnston ended the drought with victory from Morten Risager.

Cheetahs seemed to suffer stage fright, and it was a case of after the Lord Mayor's Show following their win over Belle Vue on Friday.

Coventry, who many fancy for the title this year, looked a very hungry outfit.

With the exception of the unfortunate Olly Allen, who was taken out by Johnston in heat four and took no further part in the meeting after sustaining a shoulder injury, they were streets ahead of Cheetahs.

The writing was on the wall from heat one as Scott Nicholls staged an exhibition ride to claim victory.

Freddie Eriksson and Eric Andersson were then completely outpaced by the Bees reserve pairing of Martin Smolinski and Risager.

From then on things went from bad to worse for the home side as the Bees racked up victory after victory. By the halfway stage, they were a staggering 36-12 ahead.

Oxford showed some fight to share heat nine as Ales Dryml and Johnston followed Chris Harris home.

They then actually had a heat advantage thanks to a tactical ride for Jesper Jensen, but he failed to beat the impressive Rory Schlein in heat ten.

The Bees reeled off three successive maximums, before Johnston finally ended the one-way traffic by winning heat 14.

But it was business as usual in the final heat as Harris and Nicholls completed paid 15-point maximums.

With Schlein also registering a paid 12 full house, it was one hell of an expensive night for the Bees bosses.

Oxford: Jensen 10, Johnston 6, Eriksson 4, Smith 3, Dryml 2+1, Protasiewicz 2, Andersson 1. 28pts.

Coventry: Nicholls 14+1, Harris 14+1, Schlein 11+1, Smolinski 9+1, Risager 8+2, Janniro 8+2, Allen (inj) 0. 64pts.