A heroic effort from the Kent TouchTec Kings saw them take Birmingham to a last heat decider at a packed Perry Barr Stadium on Wednesday evening – coming in just short, going down 46-44.

For a second match in two days the Kings delivered the lions’ share of heat winners (eight to the hosts’ seven) and a superb comeback saw Chris Hunt’s charges take this right down to the wire.  That four of those eight three pointers came from new number one Troy Batchelor will be taken as the big positive – but Troy’s fellow Aussie Cameron Heeps was looking far more his real self taking a vital heat 14 win and that too will be extremely heartening.

At the mid-point of the match there seemed little chance that it was going to end up with such a thrilling climax.  A maximum in heat 7 by three times British Champion Chris Harris and the Italian Paco Castagna pushed the hosts into a six points lead and then when the unlucky Ben Morley was excluded for a first bend fall in the next race the resulting 4-2 courtesy of another win by the reserve Castagna made the gap eight points.

There was a silver lining as that allowed a Tactical Substitute ride for Batchelor to partner his skipper Scott Nicholls in heat 9 with a first heat advantage for the visitors to give a glimmer of hope. That hope became reality in a double dose of success in heats 12 and 13 with firstly Paul Starke and Dan Gilkes combining for a 4-2 and then a glorious 5-1 from Batchelor and Nicholls in the battle of the heavy hitters.

That oh-so crucial win by Heeps in the penultimate race set up a last heat decider with the prospect of Batchelor & Nicolls being able to repeat their heroics of two races earlier.  This time Harris was joined by Ashley Morris and agonisingly the pairing kept Nicholls at the back to cling onto victory by the narrowest of margins – with a bonus point for the TouchTec Kings some consolation.

Next up for the Kent side is a home match at Central Park next Tuesday (10/8) versus Edinburgh Monarchs – 6.30pm start time.

Birmingham Brummies                               46

Erik Riss                            3, 2, R, 0               = 5

Valentin Grobauer          1, 1′, 1, 3            = 6+1

James Shanes                  2, 2, 0, 2            = 6

Ashley Morris                   0, 1′, 2, 2, 1′       = 6+2

Chris Harris                        3, 3, 3, 1, 2        = 12

Paco Castagna                  3, 2′, 3, 1, 1′       = 10+2

Jack Thomas                     1, 0, 0                 = 1

Kent TouchTec Kings                                    44

Troy Batchelor                 2, 3, 3, 2, 3, 3    = 16

Ben Morley                       0, 0, FX               = 0

Paul Starke                       3, 1, 2, 3            = 9

Cameron Heeps                1, 0, 1′, 3            = 5+1

Scott Nicholls                    1′, 3, 1, 2′, 0       = 7+2

Jake Mulford                     0, 0, 0                 = 0

Dan Gilkes                         2, 2, 2, 1, 0        = 7

Heat details

1 Riss, Batchelor, Grobauer, Morley 60.03  [4-2]

2 Castagna, Gilkes, Thomas, Mulford 60.90 [8-4]

3 Starke, Shanes, Heeps, Morris 60.28 [10-8]

4 Harris, Gilkes, Nicholls, Thomas 59.75 [13-11]

5 Batchelor, Shanes, Morris, Morley 59.87 [16-14]

6 Nicholls, Riss, Grobauer, Mulford 59.85 [19-17]

7 Harris, Castagna, Starke, Heeps 60.18 [24-18]

8 (rerun) Castagna, Gilkes, Grobauer, Morley (fell exc.) 61.10 [28-20]

9 Batchelor, Morris, Nicholls, Shanes 61.10 [30-24]

10 Grobauer, Starke, Heeps, Riss (ret.)  60.28 [33-27]

11 Harris, Batchelor, Castagna, Mulford 59.93 [37-29]

12 Starke, Shanes, Gilkes, Thomas 61.00 [39-33]

13 Batchelor, Nicholls, Harris, Riss  59.94 [40-38]

14 Heeps, Morris, Castagna, Gilkes  61.32 [43-41]

15 Batchelor, Harris, Morris, Nicholls 60.28 [46-44]