SIX-man Poole Pirates fired a fearsome warning to their rivals by beating Coventry on home shale without top dog Chris Holder.

The Aussie talisman travelled to Brandon but pulled out due to illness, giving the Bees hope of unlikely fightback ahead of tapes up.

It was a strange quirk of fate after Coventry had lost the first leg by 22 points without leading light Krzysztof Kasprzak at Wimborne Road on Wednesday.

But Pirates had no such trouble and shared out the burden to claim a third straight Elite Shield with five heats to spare, much to the delight of team boss Neil Middleditch.

"Rider replacement only got us three points so if you add another four or five to that, it could have been even more convincing," said Middleditch.

"Like the home leg, everybody contributed and that is often the biggest factor in any winning combination. Now, the challenge is to keep that rhythm going.

"It is still early days and I am not getting overly confident at this stage. The signs are good but we are all very aware that it is a marathon, not a sprint."

Krzysztof Buczkowski replaced Holder in a forgettable heat one which was decided from the gate, despite Brady Kurtz pushing Jason Garrity all the way.

The spoils were shared with Josh Bates winning the first reserve heat of the night before Davey Watt’s win helped Poole claw back two points.

Heat four took four attempts to get decided with Hans Andersen excluded from the first after clashing with leader Bates, who eventually won ahead of team-mate Kacper Woryna.

Garrity was excluded from the fifth race for a clash with Kurtz and the Aussie took second behind Adam Ellis as Poole plundered a comfortable maximum.

Kurtz then passed the sluggish Danny King to back up Buczkowski to level the meeting but Coventry claimed a second 5-1 with Chris Harris seeing off Andersen on turn four to support Kasprzak's win.

The pendulum quickly shifted again with Kurtz and Ellis hitting straight back and then Andersen headed an impressive third Poole maximum to leave his former club needing snookers.

Harris offered scant consolation with a sweeping move from third to first round two bends in heat 10 but Coventry made no inroads as King's stinker continued.

Kasprzak then glided round to maintain his 100 per cent record but Watt and Buczkowski bagged a share of the spoils.

Kyle Newman was just beaten by James Sarjeant having dived under Bates to divide Coventry's reserves in a heat-12 thriller that was followed by another dramatic race.

Kasprzak made it four out of four with Harris beating Buczkowski on the line after the rivals frequently switched positions throughout. Watt suffered an engine failure.

The score was all square on the night when Andersen passed King in the penultimate race before Buczkowski was protected by the Dane to wrap things up, ruining Kasprzak's hopes of a maximum in the process. 

Coventry Bees 43 (77)
1 Krzysztof Kasprzak (3-3-3-3-1) 13
2 Jason Garrity (2*-fx-1-0) 3+1
3 Danny King (0-0-0-2) 2
4 Kacper Woryna (2*-2-1-0) 5+1
5 Chris Harris (2-2*-3-2*-0) 9+2
6 James Sarjeant (0-1-0-3) 4
7 Josh Bates (3-3-0-1) 7

Poole Pirates 47 (103)
1 Rider replacement for Chris Holder

2 Brady Kurtz (1-2*-1-3-1*) 8+2
3 Davey Watt (3-0-2-r-1) 6
4 Hans Andersen (fx-1-3-2-3-2*) 11+1
5 Krzysztof Buczkowski (0-1-3-1*-1-3) 9+1
6 Adam Ellis (1*-3-2*-0) 6+2
7 Kyle Newman (2-1-2*-2) 7+1

HEAT DETAILS

Ht 1: Kasprzak, Garrity, Kurtz, Buczkowski (5-1)

Ht 2: Bates, Newman, Ellis, Sarjeant (8-4)

Ht 3: Watt, Harris, Buczkowski, King (10-8)

Ht 4: (re-run x3) Bates, Woryna, Newman, Andersen (excluded) (15-9)

Ht 5: (re-run x2) Ellis, Kurtz, Sarjeant, Garrity (excluded) (16-14)

Ht 6: Buczkowski, Woryna, Kurtz, King (18-18)

Ht 7: Kasprzak, Harris, Andersen, Watt (23-19)

Ht 8: Kurtz, Ellis, Woryna, Bates (24-24)

Ht 9: Andersen, Newman, Garrity, Sarjeant (25-29)

Ht 10: Harris, Andersen, Kurtz, King (28-32)

Ht 11: (re-run) Kaspzrak, Watt, Buczkowski, Garrity (31-35)

Ht 12: Sarjeant, Newman, Bates, Ellis (35-37)

Ht 13: Kasprzak, Harris, Buczkowski, Watt (retired) (40-38)

Ht 14: Andersen, King, Watt, Woryna (42-42)

Ht 15: Buczkowski, Andersen, Kasprzak, Harris (43-47)