THE Basingstoke Bison completed the first weekend of their title defence, without a win after they lost 4-2 at the Hull Pirates.

The home side opened the scoring at 2:45 when new defenceman Lee Heywood netted and it remained 1-0 at the first buzzer.

The Pirates struck again as former Bison forward Ryan Watt assisted Andrej Themar netted and then Watt picked up another helper as Nathan Salem scored on the powerplay with Stuart Mogg in the sin bin.

The Herd gave themselves a lifeline when they beat Hull man of the match Jordan Marr thanks to Rene Jarolin assisted by Aaron Connolly and Dan Davies.

The visitor's really pulled themselves back into the contest with 10 minutes left as Ciaran Long netted from Declan Balmer and Vanya Antonov.

In the final minute of the game the Bison pulled their man of the match Tomas Hiadlovsky, but it was Hull who scored into the empty net from Ugnius Cizas.

This weekend the Bison are at home to arch rivals Bracknell on Saturday (6.30pm) and then travel to Peterborough on Sunday (5.30pm).

Scoring (v Hull); Pirates: Salem 1+1, Themar. Haywood, Cizas 1+0, Watt, Hewitt 0+2, Lascek, Chilcott, O'Flaherty 0+1; Bison: Jarolin, Long 1+0, Antonov, Davies, Connolly, Balmer 0+1. Penalties: Pirates 6 mins, Bison 8 mins. Shots on Goal: Marr 41 Hiadlovsky 28.