Basingstoke Bison 2, Guildford Flames 5

IT WAS a miserable weekend for the Basingstoke Bison, as they were beaten twice in 24 hours.

On Saturday evening, they lost to arch rivals the Guildford Flames in a Cross League game.

It proved a good night for the British National League clubs over their Elite League rivals, as Bracknell also beat Coventry 3-1 and Sheffield lost at home to Dundee 3-2.

The previous evening, in an Elite League game, the Herd were beaten 4-2 at Lee Valley against the London Racers, who included former Bison players Steve Moria and Richard Hargreaves.

Against visiting Guildford, it was the Bison who scored first at 7:32, on a two-man power-play advantage, as former Flame Tony Redmond netted at close range from a Jozef Lukac pass.

The visitors were level seven minutes later as Ratislav Palov fired home to tie the game.

The home side, having weathered an early Flames storm, then had their best spell of the match. Shawn Maltby, on the break, forced Miroslav Bielik to save and the rebound fell to Steve Ellis, who blazed over with the goal at his mercy.

Soon after, Ellis, on a good pass down centre ice, found Mike Ford and his right wing shot was well saved by Bielik.

That was as good as it got for the home side. For the next two periods they came out second best to the well-drilled Flames outfit.

The visitors took the lead at 33:51, as man-of-the-match Jason Baird, breaking down the right hand side, finished with a superb top-corner strike.

A super goal from Doug Sheppard, assisted by Tony Redmond and Jeff Corey, gave the home fans some hope at 38:45. Soon after, a Maltby cross saw the impressive Shaun Thompson shoot just wide.

However, with just 2.6 seconds left in the second session, Guildford produced a real hammer blow as Marian Smerciak's blue line shot was redirected by Palov, leaving Bison netminder Ron Vogel no chance.

The final period saw the visitors add more salt to the wounds, with two more goals. The first came as Baird's blue line shot came off the pads of Vogel and hit former Bison Nick Cross' shin pads, sending it back past the goalie.

The final goal arrived at 52:30 as Josef Kohut skated in unchallenged, having picked up the pieces after Palov was held up at the blue line.

Bison man-of-the-match was defenceman Jerry Galway (pictured).

London Racers 4, Basingstoke Bison 2

The previous night, in London, the home side took the lead in the third minute as man-of-the-match Dusan Halloun netted.

The visitors equalised on the powerplay, as Sheppard scored from Maltby at 12:23, but Halloun made sure the Racers led at the first buzzer, scoring in the final minute of the period.

London increased their lead to 3-1 soon after the break as Halloun turned provider for Yannick Tremblay for the only goal of the second session.

The Herd pulled a goal back at 58:25, as Sheppard scored again from Bison man-of-the-match Ellis and Redmond.

The Bison pulled netminder Vogel in the final minute, but the move backfired as Ian McIntyre completed the scoring with an empty net five seconds from time.

Bison general manager and head coach Mark Bernard said: "This has been a very disappointing weekend and we have been outplayed badly in both games.

"We will be spending this coming week working intensively to put things right."

The Bison are next in action on Thursday (8pm) when they travel to Bracknell for another Cross League game.