The Kent SLYDE Kings took another big step towards the end of season Play Offs by defeating top of the table side, Belle Vue Colts 46-32 at Central Park.

The meeting was abandoned after Heat 13, due to a crash involving home rider Bradley Andrews and visiting reserve Luke Woodhull. The Kiwi King seemed to come off the worse and needed a trip to hospital which would have seen the curfew reached before the paramedic would be able to return.

For the homeside it was an all round team effort, but captain Luke Bowen led from the front. The affectionately named Bowen 747 was unbeaten by an opponent in his four rides and in Heat 6 gave a master class in perfect team riding to get a 5-1 heat advantage with young team mate Anders Rowe. Luke shepherded Anders round for all four laps leading the way and helping build the advantage of the Colts duo of Tom Brennan and Andy Mellish, then on the run to the line Bowen allowed his younger team mate to take the win.

The meeting started with Bowen taking a win in the quickest time of the evening in the opening race over Belle Vue guest fan favourite Danny Ayres before the Kings took the lead in the second race with a 4-2 heat advantage with Bradley Andrews taking the chequered flag. Behind him there was a terrific scrap for the second place between Kings reserve George Hunter and last to arrive Andy Mellish. The Belle Vue rider getting the better of Hunter round the outside on the last lap.

With the points being shared in heats three and five; there was a crucial heat advantage for the Kings in heat four. Jack Thomas took the win and George Hunter claimed the vital third place point to give the home side a second 4-2 heat advantage. This moved the Kings four points ahead on the night. This was doubled with the Bowen and Rowe maximum heat advantage in Heat 6.

The Colts fought back in an eventful seventh heat, as first off Bradley Andrews took a fall and remounted then on the next lap Rob Shuttleworth took a fall on the same bend as Andrews. The Belle Vue heat leader was able to remount to gain the third place point before Andrews came round. This gave the visitors their first heat advantage of the match as Danny Ayres took the win.

The complexion of the match was changed in heats eight and nine, when the home side took back to back 5-1 heat advantages. The first staging of Heat 8 saw a horrendous looking crash between the two Belle Vue riders Kyle Bickley and Luke Woodhull. Bickley lifted and clipped the fence coming off and Woodhull could not avoid Bickley’s bike. It was a great sight to see Woodhull come out for the re-run, which was won by Kings duo Anders Rowe and George Hunter. Heat 9 saw the Kings more experienced duo of Ben Hopwood and Dan Greenwood took the spoils over Andy Mellish and Tom Brennan.

With the Kings 14 points up, Luke Bowen took his second win of the night in Heat 10, it was another shared heat which sent the Kings into the interval holding a 37-23 lead and looking comfortable. Heat 11 was a 4-2 heat advantage to the visitors as guest Danny Ayres won his third successive race at the second attempt after Bradley Andrews fell in the first staging of the race.

Heat 13 saw the Kings seal the victory when Luke Bowen got the better of the impressive Danny Ayres and with Jack Thomas beating Belle Vue’s other guest Tom Brennan it opened up a 14 point lead.

Heat 14 was stopped after the incident with Andrews and Woodhull. Bradley appeared to spin round and although Woodhull laid his bike down his machine still collected the stricken reserve. After treatment on the track, it was decided that Andrews needed to be transferred to hospital for further checks and treatment and with the time fast approaching 8:20 medical cover would not have been restored by the curfew of 8:30.

The 3 league points sees the Kings climb to 5th place just a point behind Birmingham, where the Kings travel too on Wednesday (6/9 – 7:30pm start) to begin a run of three away fixtures this week before taking on Plymouth in the final home league fixture next Monday (11/9).

 

Kent                                                       42

L Bowen               3  2′ 3  3              11+1

A Rowe                 0  3  3  0              6

B Hopwood         2  1′  3  3             9+1

D Greenwood     1′ 2  2′                  5+2

J Thomas             3  2  2  1              8

B Andrews          3  0   X   X            3

G Hunter              1  1  2′ 0              4+1

 

Belle Vue Colts                                  30

D Ayres                 2  3  3  3  2          13

K Bickley              1′  F  0  X  1         2+1

R Shuttleworth  3  1  1′  2             7+1

Rider Replacement – Lee Payne

T Brennan            2  1  0  2  0          5

A Mellish             2  0  1  1′             4+1

L Woodhull         0  0  1                   1

 

Heat Results

1 Bowen, Ayres, Bickley, Rowe 58.8 (3-3)

2 Andrews, Mellish, Hunter, Woodhull 61.9 (7-5)

3 Shuttleworth, Hopwood, Greenwood, Bickley (fell) 59.6 (10-8)

4 Thomas, Brennan, Hunter, Woodhull 60.2 (14-10)

5 Ayres, Greenwood, Hopwood, Bickley 60.1 (17-13)

6 Rowe, Bowen, Brennan, Mellish 60.8 (22-14)

7 Ayres, Thomas, Shuttleworth (fell rem.), Andrews (fell rem.) 61.0 (24-18)

8 (rerun) Rowe, Hunter, Woodhull, Bickley (fell exc.) 61.1 (29-19)

9 Hopwood, Greenwood, Mellish, Brennan 60.6 (34-20)

10 Bowen, Brennan, Shuttleworth, Rowe 60.4 (37-23)

11 (rerun) Ayres, Thomas, Bickley, Andrews (fell exc.) 61.6 (39-27)

12 Hopwood, Shuttleworth, Mellish, Hunter (fell rem.) 63.3 (42-30)

13 Bowen, Ayres, Thomas, Brennan 4-2 (46-32) 60.9

14 (stopped/not rerun) Andrews (fell exc.)

Meeting abandoned after 13 heats – curfew: result stands

Picture supplied by Elizabeth Leslie.