A luckless week for the Kent SLYDE Kings ended with a 12 point defeat at local rivals Rye House.
Engine failures and falls once again costing vital points as the Kings slipped to a 52-40 defeat in an eventful National Trophy encounter at Hoddesdon.
The meeting started well for the Sittingbourne-based side with skipper Ben Morley taking heat one in the fastest time of the night; luckless Jamie Couzins just missing out for the third place point he had held all race when former Kings’ man Sam Woods passed him on the run to the line.
Heat number two saw Danno Verge lead in the first staging of the race only for Danyon Hume to fall and bring down Alfie Bowtell with Adam Sheppard’s quick thinking to lay his bike down to prevent a much worse incident. In the re-run Bowtell was leading when Danno Verge fell and couldn’t get his bike going to claim the third place point.
Heat three was just as eventful. The pairing of Aaron Baseby and Danny Ayres were lightning-fast away from the tapes only for Kyle Hughes to produce a sublime inside pass at the start of the second lap, then a circuit later Danny Ayres got into trouble and had an awkward tangle with the returnee Luke Priest.
Aaron Baseby twice suffered mechanical misfortune in heats and 7 and 10 and Danno Verge once again fell in heat six when holding a comfortable third. By this stage a sequence of heat advantages for the Raiders had pushed the Hertfordshire side into a handy-looking lead and a 5-1 for the home pairing in heat nine, with surprise returnee for Rye House, Luke Priest keeping James Shanes back into third, pushed the margin out to what was to prove an unassailable margin.
Indeed, in truth, only by clawing back six points in heats 14 & 15 (the SLYDE Kings’ only actual genuine heat advantages of the whole match) did the final score line retain some measure of respectability.
On an evening beset by falls and mechanical misfortune, the star performer was skipper Ben Morley, his 17 points included a win when on a tactical ride and two wins over Raiders’ number one and recent Kent gust Rob Branford.
It was Branford who ruined Ben’s hopes of a maximum at his former home with a sneaky inside pass after Morley had made the gate in heat 13.
The Kings will now look to put these recent troubles behind them as they enter a run of four meetings in eight days starting on Monday at home to Stoke (6:30pm start), then away to Cradley up in Birmingham on Wednesday (10/6) before the NL Fours at Coventry (14/6) and finally a chance to seek revenge over the Raiders (15/8)
Rye House Raiders 52
1. Robert Branford 2,3,3,3,1 12
2. Sam Woods 1′,1, 1′, 1 4+2
3. Kyle Hughes 3,2,3,2′ 10+1
4. Luke Priest 1,1′,2′,2 6+2
5. Luke Chessell 3,3,2,1,R 9
6. Danyon Hume X,1,1′,1,0 2+1
7. Alfie Bowtell 3,1,2,3 9
Kent SLYDE Kings 40
1. Ben Morley 3,3,6^,2,3 17
2. Jamie Couzins 0,0,0 0
3. Aaron Baseby 2,EF,R,1 3
4. Danny Ayres F/X,2,2,3,2′ 9+1
5. James Shanes 2,2,1,0 5
6. Danno Verge R,F,3,0,0 3
7. Adam Sheppard 2,0,0,1 3
Heat Results
Heat 1 Morley, Branford, Woods, Couzins 58.3 (3-3)
Heat 2 (rerun) Bowtell, Sheppard, Verge (ret.) Hume (fell exc.) 62.9 (6-5)
Heat 3 (awarded) Hughes, Baseby, Priest, Ayres (fell exc.) no time (10-7)
Heat 4 Chessell, Shanes, Bowtell, Sheppard 59.5 (14-9)
Heat 5 Morley Hughes Priest Couzins 58.7 (17-12)
Heat 6 Branford, Shanes, Woods, Verge (fell)l 59.5 (21-14)
Heat 7 Chessell, Ayres, Hume, Baseby (ret.) 60.2(25-16)
Heat 8 Verge, Bowtell, Woods, Couzins 62.5 (28-19)
Heat 9 Hughes, Priest, Shanes, Sheppard 62.9 (33-20)
Heat 10 Branford, Ayres, Woods, Baseby (fell) 59.3 (37-22)
Heat 11 Morley (T/R), Chessell, Hume, Verge 60.1 (40-28)
Heat 12 Bowtell, Hughes, Baseby, Verge 62.0 (45-29)
Heat 13 Branford, Morley, Chessell, Shanes 59.2 (49-31)
Heat 14 Ayres, Priest, Sheppard, Hume 59.6 (51-35)
Heat 15 Morley, Ayres, Branford, Chessell (ret.) 59.6 (52-40)
Picture supplied by Elizabeth Leslie.