THERE was certainly no festive cheer for Bracknell Bees at the weekend, losing twice to local rivals Basingstoke Bison – 4-2 away on Saturday and 7-2 at The Hive the following night, writes Dave Wright.

Sunday’s game attracted one of Bracknell’s biggest crowds of the season, but it proved bitterly disappointing for the home fans.

Slow-starting Bees conceded goals in the second and sixth minutes and never looked capable of getting back in the game with the visitors frequently quicker in stopping and laying off the puck.

Bracknell were not without scoring opportunities with Martin Pavlicek, Alex Barker and Rio Grinell-Parke all trying to reply to Bison’s opening goals from Derek Roehl and Rene Jarolin.

Then, after a surging run, Lukas Smital saw his effort blocked with Shaun Thompson firing the rebound wide.

Basingstoke swiftly turned defence into attack and Ciaran Long extended their lead on 17:45.

After a poor opening period, the Bees made a livelier start to the second, only for their defence to let in Long for his second and Bison’s fourth on 23:57.

The hosts did take advantage in power play to pull a goal back through a scrambled effort from Carl Thompson on 27:27, but within three minutes they were trailing by four goals again with Dan Davies the man on target.

By this time, Bees had lost both Scott Spearing and Josh Smith through injury.

Despite that, they enjoyed a good spell of possession in the Basingstoke half in the third period with shots being blocked or off target, while Matt Foord found the side-netting.

After Joe Miller had netted a sixth for the visitors on 52:12, James Galazzi scored Bracknell’s second on 54:40, but play switched to the other end, and Alex Mettam made three saves before being beaten again by Moore on 58:33.

Thompson took Bracknell’s man-of-the-match award.

The recipient on Saturday was once again netminder Mettam, who faced a total of 56 shots in the 4-2 defeat.

He was beaten by Roehl on 6.32 and 32:59, Kurt Reynolds (32:59) and Dan Davies (45.12) with Bees replying through Spearing on 9:48 and Shaun Thompson on 39:21.

The sin-bin seats were kept warm in the final period when Bees totted up a total of 20 penalty minutes with ex-Bison Thompson responsible for 12 of them, while Basingstoke amassed a dozen in the same period.