The remaining five riders (with Nathan Stoneman serving a suspension of an entirely different kind after a head injury a week previously) had an average age of just 18.5 years and produced a teen titanic performance to sink Plymouth’s KOC hopes.

More than anything though this was a victory for the sport, with the best racing seen at Central Park this season and great credit is due to the visiting Devils side too, who were also quickly down to five riders, for the part they played.  The Devon side’s skipper Richard Andrews played a key role in that, engaging in three outstanding races: with Taylor Hampshire (swapping places on nearly every bend in heat three), Jack Thomas (who he memorably held at bay in heat seven) and in a scintillating heat 14, Anders Rowe.

Those same three terrific teenagers though led the way for the homesters.  After seeing their hard-won four-point lead from the first leg immediately cancelled out when Plymouth recorded what seemed then an ominous opening heat 5-1, there was an almost audible drawing in of breath and a determination to go again by the beleaguered Kings.  Hampshire’s two race wins when out on track on his own due to Boxall’s absence, when it was really back to the walls stuff, completely turned the tie irrevocably in his side’s favour; whilst Rowe was lightning fast out of the traps on the way to a brilliant paid 13 haul.  Thomas led from the front as skipper and even capped off a night of mixed emotions by beating the previously invincible looking Ellis Perks in the final heat.

Young James Laker answered a late call to fill in for the short-handed Devonians and his night ended very prematurely, fracturing his wrist in a freak second heat crash. That will rule Laker out of this Sunday’s climax to the Southern Development League [SDL] campaign for the Kent junior side the Crayford Supporters’-sponsored Kestrels – wins against the three opponents visiting the Old Gun Site training track in Iwade (Exeter, Weymouth & the Isle of Wight) will see a first SDL title clinched.  That meeting (12/8) starts at Iwade at 1pm.

“Never in my long career in Speedway have I moved from ‘High’ to ‘Low’ and back again in such a short space of time as I did at last night’s meeting against Plymouth.  By late afternoon, even with the unbearable heat, the track had turned out better than expected so, by 5pm I was on quite a high, expecting some good racing.

“But by 6pm that turned to one of the worst “Lows” I have ever suffered as Steve [Boxall] arrived at the track only to be hit by an immediate racing ban for breaching SCB rules. This ban, right before we were to start a vital Knock-out Cup quarter final, left us without a number one and unable even to cover his rides.  At that point our prospects of getting through the tie seemed remote, remembering too we were already with Nathan [Stoneman] unable to ride due to the concussion he suffered the previous week; and myself and team boss Chris [Hunt] were extremely despondent.”

The reaction to such adversity by the young Kings’ quintet out on track was utterly extraordinary though,

“Our young skipper Jack Thomas came up to me just before the parade to declare,

‘Don’t worry, Len”, he said, “We can still do this’. And, my word, didn’t they “do” it! This has to go down as one of the best performances by any team in the league, putting me on to a super “high” and very proud to be with the Kent Kings”.