It’s back to National League [NL] action at Kent Speedway on Monday 8th. July when the Kent TouchTec Kings take on current league leaders, Isle of Wight Warriors.
That this year’s chase for the top four is going to the most competitive yet is given confirmation by the side from Ryde on the holiday island currently topping the table – something few pundits were predicting when third tier hostilities commenced back in April.
As Kings’ team boss and a man who knows plenty about the IOW club having previously managed the side from Smallbrook, Chris Hunt comments. “Bearing in mind that we’ve been to their track twice this year and actually been defeated both times, we know that this will not be easy at all on Monday and equally we have cause to want to avenge those two reverses. It also brings back happy memories, of course, of last month when we beat the Warriors at Central Park to take our first silverware, the National Trophy [NT].”
There’s one change in that Warriors’ line up – with Scott Campos replacing New Zealander championship rider, Ryan Terry-Daley. Campos has been seen twice at Central Park this year, with his previous 2019 side Plymouth scoring just 2 and 3 points - so will be looking to step up that scoring on what he hopes will a third time lucky. Similarly, Chad Wirtzfeld had zero luck on his first ever visit in that NT match failing to register a point but has scored sufficiently well in the Warriors’ impressive start to the campaign to be moving out of the reserve berths into the no. 2 race jacket. Swapping positions in the visitors’ septet will be Chris Widman. Once a rostrum finisher in the Kent Laurels individual event, Widman has plenty of experience of the Central Park circuit for sure and can’t be expected to score as meagrely as in that NT match last month.
And the same has to be said of their number one, Georgie Wood who had misfortune aplenty in that meeting scoring just seven. The fact is though he is capable of being super fat around the 268 metres track in his home country – the Maidstone-based rider who doubles up with Eastbourne, having recorded the fifth fastest time ever just over a year ago when visiting with the Eagles. And then of course there’s Ben Morley – no-one in Monday’s meeting has ridden more times and scored more points at Central Park than the reigning National League Riders’ Champion, who also won that title when a Kings’ rider back in 2015. Morley top scored for the Warriors in the NT defeat and will, as ever, be the man the Kings’ riders need to beat.
The hosts will be for one more match be without Nathan Ablitt – whose 23 day racing ban after receiving mild concussion in a crash in the challenge match at Swindon, frustratingly ends the day after Monday’s match. Jake Mulford, who as a complete rookie has wowed the Central Park faithful with wins in consecutive matches over Kyle Bickley (who like Kent’s Drew Kemp is in the GB U21 World Cup squad this coming Saturday up at Belle Vue) and the highly-rated Dan Thompson (both times coming from behind in spectacular fashion) is continuing in place of Ablitt in the reserve berth. The other two matches having been Cup and Challenge ties, Monday’s match will be the rider from Norwich’s actual NL debut.
Mulford coming in is the only change from Kent’s win in their last NL match at Plymouth on Friday – when encouragingly recent injury victims Alex Spooner and Jordan Jenkins got back into winning ways and Jacob Clouting was well back among the points; joining in-form heat leader trio Rob Ledwith, Anders Rowe and last Monday’s maximum man Kemp in securing a vital league victory. And, back to winning ways, Monday is a real must-win match as the Kings look to move up the table – the action gets underway at 6.30pm.