Back to back matches between the Kent SLYDE Kings and the Isle of Wight Warriors sees the two teams meet in a National Trophy [NT] Southern group match at Central Park Stadium on Bank Holiday Monday afternoon with a 3.30pm start time.
The visitors will be smarting of course from the heavy defeat the Kent septet inflicted upon them at Smalbrook on the holiday island on Thursday. The SLYDE Kings line up showed they were in a mood only for business that evening and Bank Holiday or not the same can be expected by an unchanged line up at Central Park on Monday for the quick fire return. That the side is unchanged means there’s an outing for Sussex-born 27-year-old Nick Laurence.
Nick has a member of the Lakeside Hammers squad in 2017 and has had previous spells with Weymouth, Bournemouth, Rye House Raiders and Mildenhall in a third tier career which stretches back to 2006. Nick scored four points from the reserve berth in that 56-32 win for Kent on Thursday including a race win in heat two – part of an all-importance maximum heat advantage which set the Kings on the way to a notable victory.
It was a truly terrible Thursday for the IOW though – not just taking such as heavy home defeat but losing their experienced second string Scott Campos to injury which saw the erstwhile USA World Cup squad member withdraw from proceedings there and which keeps him out of Bank Holiday Monday’s return fixture too.
Whilst the Ryde-based Warriors were enduring woes close up, far away up north an even bigger calamity was unfolding with their number one Ben Morley being involved in a truly horrific looking track smash whilst on SGB Championship duty with Lakeside at one of his previous tracks in the second tier, Redcar.
Amazingly Ben (a former Kent Kings’ skipper of course) walked away from the incident with only tissue & ligament damage to his wrist but it has sidelined him and so they’ll be no return for Morley on Monday to the scene of so many splendid moments of his.
There’s little substantive change in terms of experience of Central Park though for the visitors, as to cover for the stricken Morley, the Warriors’ team boss Kevin Sheppard uses Danny Ayres as ‘Guest’ at number one. It’s a second visit in two meetings for the still hugely popular Ayres to his first and truest Speedway home – the 2015 National League Riders Championship runner up (ironically finishing second to then team mate Morley) scored nine points last week for his 2018 side Mildenhall. Ayes’ presence in the visiting line up brings their complement of former Kings’ men back up to three: alongside Danno Verge and the Warriors’ skipper this term, Ben Hopwood.
There was further bad news for the IOW management team of Sheppard and Jackie Vatcher late last week when it became apparent that their initial pick at reserve for the visit to Central Park on the holiday Monday, Jamie Sealey wasn’t fit to travel following a crash in Development League action up at Birmingham last Wednesday.
There’s a surprise comeback to replace Sealey in one of the reserve berths for Connor King – who was once a number 8 for Mildenhall before disappearing off the scene for a while. The visitors will use the Rider Replacement facility for the missing Campos,
Teams [in alphabetical order]:
Kent SLYDE Kings:
Luke Bowen; Taylor Hampshire; Nick Laurence; Anders Rowe; Alex Spooner; Nathan Stoneman; Jack Thomas
Isle of Wight Warriors:
Danny Ayres [G]; Ben Hopwood; Connor King; Shaun Tedham; Danno Verge; Chris Widman; Rider Replacement for Scott Campos; no. 8 tba
The gates open at Central Park Stadium at 2pm on Bank Holiday Monday (28/5) with tapes up on this crucial National Trophy Southern Group match at 3.30pm.