POWERFUL Coventry put one hand on the Craven Shield trophy in their bid to prise it away from holders Poole, and there wasn't anything that Pirates could do about it last night.

The Bees dominated the first leg with a strong all-round team performance in front of a 3,000 crowd at Wimborne Road.

Just like they bundled Poole Castle Cover out of the league play-off semi-finals before toppling Swindon in the final, it looks as though the Midlanders will beat both sides again in this competition to claim the silverware.

The Dorset club could have come out of last night's meeting only one point behind treble-chasing Coventry if they had got a last race 5-1 over Swindon.

But the Robins, out of touch for most of the contest, salvaged some pride of their own when guest Simon Stead and Tomasz Chrzanowski got a shock 5-1 over Edward Kennett and Adrian Gomolski to silence the home crowd.

That setback, sufffered after Gomolski had been drafted in by Pirates team manager Neil Middleditch to replace out-of-form Troy Batchelor, means Poole travel to Swindon for tonight's second leg trailing Coventry by five points.

The Dorset club - seeking their ninth trophy in nine years under the Matt Ford-Mike Golding promotion - were always going to be up against it after Jason Doyle was sidelined with a shoulder injury.

But their riders, including stand-in Tai Woffinden, put in a reasonable backs-to-the-wall show and could well have sneaked a win in this meeting if Batchelor hadn't looked off-key, and Jason Crump run two lasts.

It was a particularly frustrating night for the former world champion, who had stressed he would like to return to Poole next year before the meeting.

He suffered two rare fourth places at Wimborne Road after cleaning up in his first two outings before receiving the Daily Echo's Pirates Rider of the Year Trophy on completion of the match.

Bjarne Pedersen and Woffinden had just got a great 5-1 over Stead and Chrzanowski in heat nine to tie the scores at Coventry 20, Poole 20 when Crump - and Poole - suffered his first unexpected setback.

Gomolski was the surprise early leader ahead of Steve Johnston and Rory Schlein, who penned Crump at the back for four laps.

With Johnston diving under Poole's Pole to win, Coventry's 4-2 gave them the lead again.

When Scott Nicholls and Billy Janniro got a 5-1 over Leigh Adams in the next race, with Janniro brilliantly catching Adams napping on the last lap for second, suddenly the Bees were 29-22 up on Poole and in total control.

Kennett and Pedersen kept Pirates in the hunt with heat wins, while Chrzanowski took the chequered flag in race 14.

But it was Coventry's 4-2 over Gomolski and Crump in race 15 that really had the Dorset club back pedalling as Charlie Gjedde forced his way outside the Australian for third place.

It was hard on Crump, who had been trying to team-ride Gomolski home for a 3-3 behind race leader Sebastian Ulamek, but it summed up Poole's night as they struggled to make a big enough impression on the meeting.

Pedersen produced the highlight, passing Martin Smolinski twice from the back on the third lap to triumph in heat 13.

Pirates, however, face a tough task now to put any honours on the board this year.