Two fixtures on a scorching Sunday at The Old Gun Site produced one win and one defeat for the Kent Royals, as they took on the Mildenhall Fen Tigers and then the Oxford Chargers in an action-packed double header.

The Royals were victorious over Mildenhall by four points running out 47-43 winners, however they did succumb to the Oxford Chargers going down by twelve points, 39-51.

The opening match against the Fen Tigers took three attempts to get going, the first attempt to start Heat 1, saw a spectacular four rider crash. Royals’ debutant Ashton Vale tangled on the inside with Arran Butcher and on the outside the two number 1’s, Ben Morley and former Royal Alfie Bowtell, weren’t giving an inch.

All four met in an untidy mess of bikes and bodies. The second attempt to get the race run saw Ashton Vale slide off on his own and his bike being trapped under the air fence bringing a halt to the race, which sadly led to him being excluded.

Mildenhall were holding a comfortable 5-1 at the stoppage as Ben Morley was suffering engine problems. Another re-run was ordered, and this time Ben Morley got away and took the win from Bowtell, and his winning time was only 0.3 of a second outside Bowtell’s track record of 57.1, the fastest time at The Old Gun Site so far this season.

The Royals took the lead in the second race and were never behind from that point, although a late fightback by the visitors made sure the bonus point went back to Suffolk, although with only three races to go, Kent had pulled back 10 of the 16 points overall deficit.

The Royals began to wonder if they were going to repeat the drama of the opening home league fixture, which saw them pull back a twenty-point deficit and take the bonus point via a Super Heat.

The Fen Tigers top two of Alfie Bowtell and Lee Complin came to the fore in two of the last three heats, taking a maximum heat advantage in a sensational Heat 13 to all but seal the bonus point over previously unbeaten Kent duo of Ben Morley and Nathan Ablitt.

George Congreve sealed the bonus point with a win in the penultimate race, but the shared heat result gave two league points to the hosts.

There were a number of moments of great racing in the opening meeting as the local rivals put on what was the most entertaining fixture of the season so far at The Old Gun Site, and the passing started in the second race when former Royal Sam Woolley made a stunning inside pass on the rider who took his team spot Ashton Vale, Sam rode a calculated line and made his move on the second lap to split the home pairing of Connor King and Vale.

The third race saw Kent captain Tom Woolley and guest, former Mildenhall rider Matt Marson, put on an excellent display of team riding to shut out the ever-pressing Congreve for a maximum heat advantage for The Royals. The fourth race then saw a good three-way battle between Royals duo Nathan Ablitt and Connor King and Fen Tigers captain Lee Complin, which saw Complin try to come over both from the start but The Royals duo came to the fore, with King making the initial running and Complin all over Ablitt.

King then made a slight error and Ablitt got passed to take the lead and Complin then seized his moment to pass the Kent reserve as they raced for the line, the 4-2 heat win moving the hosts eight ahead after four heats.

Connor King was in the thick of the action in Heat 8 as he looped at the gate in spectacular fashion, his bike narrowly avoiding Fen Tigers reserve Sam Woolley who was on the inside.

The race of the afternoon was Heat 11 when Nathan Ablitt and Alfie Bowtell came to the line with The Royals holding an eight point lead and Bowtell made the start but Ablitt was in hot pursuit and made a pass up the inside of Bowtell on the back straight and into the third bend, Bowtell then quickly switched back to the inside to repay the move down the home straight and into the opening bend of the second lap, only for Ablitt to switch back himself and repeat the move he’d made on the opening lap and once again take the lead, this time covering Bowtell’s move at the start of the third lap and going onto take on the win. 

The win in the opening part of the double header owed a lot to the all-round performance of the team, with Nathan Ablitt scoring 12, But the rest of the top four scoring solidly and Connor King contributing paid 9 from reserve despite his fall.

The second fixture against the Oxford Chargers was a much more difficult affair and The Royals went down to a 39-51 defeat but still showed resilience as riders and bikes tired on what was a very hot and humid afternoon at The Old Gun Site.

For the hosts the bulk of the scoring came from double figure returns from number one Ben Morley and guest Matt Marson, with skipper Tom Woolley adding two wins for a 9+1 return on what was a good day personally for the Kent captain.

The second match got underway in a similar fashion to the first with Ben Morley taking a win, but the match was taken away from the hosts as Oxford hit three heat advantages in the opening six races to move ten points clear. It started with a maximum heat advantage in the second race from Luke Killeen and former Kent King Jason Garrad, a second maximum heat advantage followed in the fifth heat from former Kent riders Jordan Jenkins and Jacob Clouting, this time it was followed up in heat six as Henry Atkins took his second win of four on his way to 14-point haul got the better of home hero Morley and Luke Killeen picked up the third place point.

The Royals did rally in the middle of the meeting to close the gap back down to six points with back-to-back 4-2’s, Matt Marson and Connor King took the first in Heat 8 with Jacob Clouting getting between the duo and pushing Marson all the way for four laps.

Then in the ninth race Tom Woolley spoiled the maximum hopes of the impressive Atkins with Matt Marson providing the support for the third place point.

The Chargers then took the gap to twelve points with wins in heats 11 and 12, the eleventh race saw another incident as Jordan Jenkins got in front of Nathan Ablitt, Jenkins left a big hole on his inside down the home straight which Ablitt went for but the gap disappeared as they got to the corner with Ablitt collecting Jenkins who then came down, the referee decided that the home rider had caused his rival to fall and he was disqualified from the re-run, and the re-run saw the visitors take a maximum heat advantage. Oxford then added a 4-2 in the twelfth race with Luke Kileen taking the win over Matt Marson.

Twelve points was how the gap stayed as the match ended with three shared heats but speaking after the fixture manager Jamie Willis said “Delighted with the performance of our boys today, they gave it their all. Both rider and machine deserve a well-earned rest after this afternoon. We were quietly confident that we could pick up some league points and the riders certainly showed that they believed it too.”

Jamie also added “We knew Oxford would be tough especially after being in the heat all day and our boys gave a good account of ourselves.” There was also a message to the track staff. “The riders and I would like to say a massive thank you to all the volunteers that allow the riders to race. Especially on days like today it is really appreciated everything that you do.”

Images courtesy of Simon Jones – Ben Morley & Matt Marson and Amanda Morrison  – Connor King flip