NEIL Middleditch insisted Coventry had deserved punishment for 'robbing the public of a meeting' in their June 1 clash with Pirates.

The Bees were slapped with a £3,000 fine by the Speedway Control Bureau over their approach to heat 10 of the rain-soaked clash at Brandon.

Team boss Gary Havelock had instructed Chris Harris and Joonas Kylmakorpi not to take part on safety grounds, allowing Chris Holder and Davey Watt to rack up a 5-0 heat advantage and put the visitors 36-22 ahead.

The meeting was then brought to a halt and the result stood, much to Coventry's displeasure.

Havelock, Harris and Kylmakorpi were fined £375 each – the maximum financial sanction available to referees – and Coventry failed in their bid to get the meeting restaged.

An additional four-figure penalty rubbed salt in the wound but opposition boss Middleditch believes the SCB were right to act.

He told the Daily Echo: "What Coventry did was rob the public of a meeting. The public came to see Coventry race Poole but Coventry refused to race.

"It's difficult to put a price on that but the SCB deemed it serious enough to give them a large fine. It was right that they were punished.

"On the night, the promotion were more adamant about not putting riders out than the riders themselves.

"I think the majority of the riders would have been happy to go out, as mine were. My riders told me the track was safe.

"I sent my boys out and Coventry elected not to send theirs out and they received a fine. I would have expected the same treatment had it been me."

An SCB statement issued yesterday clarified the reasons why the Bees had been punished.

It read: "Coventry promoters Mick Horton and Neil Watson attended a meeting with members of the Speedway Control Bureau on Thursday, July 9 to answer a charge of not complying to speedway regulation SR 4.1.9.

"This non-compliance arose when the Coventry team manager, for whom the Coventry promotion are jointly responsible, instructed the Coventry riders scheduled to ride in heat 10, Chris Harris and Joonas Kylmakorpi, not to participate.

"This action had the effect of withdrawing from the meeting as the riders failed to meet the two-minute time allowance facility on more than one occasion.

"SCB members viewed video footage supplied by Coventry and also Sky TV footage.

"Following a long discussion, SCB members agreed that the fines imposed by the meeting referee upon the team manager, Gary Havelock, and the riders involved, would stand and in addition the promotion would be fined £3,000.

"All parties have a right of appeal to the Auto-Cycle Union."

Pirates co-promoter Gordon Pairman, a member of the five-man Bureau, had declared prior to the summit that he would step outside if faced with a conflict of interest.