The curtain comes down on the 2015 Speedway season at Central Park in Sittingbourne on Friday with the staging of the Kent County Fours.

Originally scheduled for Bank Holiday Monday in August – when typically poor public holiday weather saw the meeting postponed due to rain – the Kent County Fours is the first Four Team Tournament to be held at the Sittingbourne Greyhound stadium home of the Kent SLYDE Kings.

It will see a quartet representing the hosts take on (as originally conceived) Fours from local rivals Eastbourne and fellow City Gearboxes National League [CGNL] sides, Mildenhall and Stoke.

The Stoke Potters from Staffordshire have a very good record at Central Park – including winning on their one visit to Kent this season in the CGNL; and are led by the rider who finished third in the Laurels individual event held at the track earlier in the season, Chris Widman.

Widman is joined by Ryan Terry-Daley (who achieved the very rare distinction of a race win over the Kent SLYDE Kings’ skipper Ben Morley in last Friday’s Silver Ski Holidays Championship held at Central Park), Shaun Tedham and Danny Phillips.

Mildenhall are one of the CGNL’s perennial high achievers, though this year has been rather less successful for the side from the Suffolk fens. Coming in as their guest number one is one of the most acclaimed of visiting riders to Central Park this season, Kyle Hughes. Another favourite visitor, popular among the Central Park faithful, is in the Fen Tigers four-some, Tom Bacon – who finished a highly creditable fifth in last week’s individual event.

Connor Mountain – who represented his club at last week’s National League Riders Championship [NLRC] and namesake former Kent Kings’ rider Connor Coles complete the Mildenhall quartet.

Eastbourne have been a massive thorn in the side of the Kent club in this the Sussex side’s first season in the CGNL: three derby-day visits by the Eagles have seen the club based at Arlington just outside the seaside town, fly away with the spoils – so Friday represents a last chance for the hosts to grab some local bragging rights over the winter.

Eastbourne do have their number one, Bradley Wilson-Dean fit again – despite topping the divisional averages, the Kiwi did not take his place in last weekend’s NLRC after crashing out heavily at the Rye House circuit the previous Saturday.

Wilson-Dean heads a very strong looking Eagles’ quartet, alongside Maidstone-based fellow 2015 newcomer, Georgie Wood; the ever-popular fence-scraping racer, Marc Owen; and a rider now established as something of a Central Park track expert: Richard Andrews.

For the Kent SLYDE Kings, though, this is a night of glorious celebration – with NLRC winner Ben Morley, his exuberant runner-up in that event Danny Ayres and British Grasstrack Masters Champion, James Shanes all in action; and all parading their hard-won silverware from last weekend before the action gets underway.

This parade (from 6.15pm) is sure to get the home crowd whipped up and the trio have every cause to be introduced as the current top form riders in the CGNL right now!

Their presence will undoubtedly be an inspiration to a very late-season debutant in a Kent SLYDE King’s Invicta race-jacket, Jack Thomas.

16-year-old Jack has been competing this year in the GB Youth Speedway Championship, finishing 4th in the 500cc class in the recent round at Rye House. He made an impressive Central Park debut last Friday, winning a race on the way to qualifying for the semi-finals of the Silver Ski.

The teenager from Norwich made quite an impression on the Kent management that evening and earns his place in this final team selection of the 2015 season – with the Central Park bosses keen to recruit a more solidly-scoring set of reserve and second-stringers for the assault on the CGNL in 2016.

Thomas comes in for the missing Aaron Baseby – the third-placed rider in last week’s individual event being absent due to pre-booked holiday arrangements.

The 16-heat Kent County Fours meeting gets underway at Central Park in Murston at 6.30pm on Friday 2nd. October – fans are advised to arrive early (gates open at 5pm) to join in with the victory celebrations for the triumphant Kent SLYDE Kings’ riders before the action gets underway.

Picture supplied by Elizabeth Leslie.