The Bandits raid on league points met royal resistance at Central Park on Tuesday evening as the TouchTec Kings powered to their biggest win since joining the SGB Championship in a victory over Berwick bordering on a rout.  

It was an all-round performance for the hosts as every member of the septet recorded at least a paid win, with six registering a full heat win. This contrasted with the beleaguered visitors who provided just two race winners and only two heat advantages.

It was captain Scott Nicholls who led the way for Kent, with a flawless four ride maximum.  Fifth in the British Championship the evening before, the in-form Scott was rarely troubled on his way to his 12 points, with only visitor Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen really testing him in heats 11 and 13.  The skipper often dominated the majority of his races from the gate, leaving the opposition eating dust as the TouchTec Kings tore through the opposition

Supporting Nicholls was Kent’s all time record point scorer Ben Morley, who arguably was the stand out performer in this Kings’ all-star show. The Southend-born racer posted his highest score since moving up to the main body of the team with a solid 10+1, which included two very stylish heat wins.  Ben was an original King back in 2013 and the Central Park faithful will delight in seeing how he has developed over the past few years. Ben’s night started in the very opening race: team mate Troy Batchelor gated and went clear, but Morley managed to get by both Bandits riders with stylish and well considered passes to join the number 1 up front to get the night off to the perfect start.  This was followed up with reserves Dan Gilkes and Jake Mulford adding a 5-1 of their own to get the Kings right into the groove.

But ‘Little Ben’ was just warming up – in the eighth race, with the TouchTec Kings already 20 points to the good, visiting reserve Kyle Bickley hit the tapes and was replaced by fellow reserve Kasper Andersen.  The highly-rated Dane gated but, not to be outdone, Morley got his wheels in line and past his opponent like he was standing still down the backstraight on the opening lap.

And Ben saved his best for his last programmed ride in Heat 10.  Austrian Dany Gappmaier took the lead over Kent duo Morley and Batchelor, and it was Morley who went on the attack, drawing alongside his rival coming off Bend 4 and entering lap 2 completed a stunning pass which moved the Bandits rider wide and literally found the gap for Batchelor to come through and put the Kings 22 points up at the interval stage.
Batchelor showed his growing familiarity with his new home track with a scintillating heat win over his fellow Australian Aaron Summers in the sixth heat.

The rest of the Kings line up also played a full part in the victory.  Heat leader Paul Starke weighed in with three heat wins and the last really was a ride to marvel over. Andersen again was the early race leader, and still in front right up to 10 metres from the chequered flag, when Starke cut back off the final turn and stole the win to the delight of the large home crowd.  

The other Australian in the Kings’ ranks Cameron Heeps had shown great bravery after taking an alarming fall tangling with fellow countryman Jye Etheridge in the first running of his opening ride, getting off the deck to partner Starke to a maximum heat advantage  in heat three which really broke the resolve of the visitors. Heeps would later add a victory of his own in the penultimate race.

Oddly the match was to end as last week did with an unexpected 1-5 reverse for the winning side – thus denying the hosts breaking through the magic 60 points mark.

Next up for the resurgent Touchtec Kings is the ‘Northern tour’, where they face three difficult away meetings in successive days – starting with a trip to last week’s visitors Edinburgh on Friday, before attempting to avoid a Bandits revenge on the Saturday and then a trip to next week’s visitors to Central Park Newcastle on the Sunday. 

Kent TouchTec Kings                                    57

Troy Batchelor                 3, 3, 2′, 1            = 9+1

Ben Morley                      2′, 1, 3, 3, 1        = 10+1

Paul Starke                       3, 3, 2, 3, F        = 11

Cameron Heeps                2′, 1, 0, 3            = 6+1

Scott Nicholls                    3, 3, 3, 3            = 12 [M]

Jake Mulford                    2′, 1, 0, 1            = 4+1

Dan Gilkes                         3, 1, 0, 1            = 5

Berwick Bandits                                            33

Nikolaj Busk Jakobsen     0, 0, 1′, 2, 3        = 6+1

Leon Flint                           1, 2, 1′, 2, 2′       = 8+2

Jye Etheridge                    FX, 0, 0, 0        = 0

Dany Gappmaier             1, 1, 2                  = 4

Aaron Summers                2, 2, 2, 3, 0        = 9

Kasper Andersen              FX, 0, 2, 1, 2    = 5

Kyle Bickley                      1, 0, T, 0    = 1

Heat details

1 Batchelor, Morley, Flint, Jakobsen 58.1 [5-1]
2 (rerun; stpd awarded) Gilkes, Mulford, Bickley, Anderson (fell exc.) no time [10-2]
3 (rerun) Starke, Heeps, Gappmaier, Etheridge (fell exc.) 57.6 [15-3]
4 Nicholls, Summers, Gilkes, Bickley 58.1 [19-5]
5 Starke, Flint, Heeps, Jakobsen 57.9 [23-7]
6 Batchelor, Summers, Morley, Andersen 58.8 [27-9]
7 Nicholls, Summers, Mulford, Etheridge 58.0 [31-11]
8 (rerun) Morley, Andersen, Flint, Gilkes, Bickley (exc. tapes)  58.8 [34-14]
9 Summers, Starke, Andersen, Heeps 58.5 [36-18]
10 Morley, Batchelor, Gappmaier, Etheridge 59.5 [41-19]
11 Nicholls, Flint, Jakobsen, Mulford 58.1 [44-22]
12 Starke, Andersen, Gilkes, Etheridge 58.6 [48-24]
13 Nicholls, Jakobsen, Batchelor, Summers 58.6 [52-26]
14 Heeps, Gappmaier, Mulford, Bickley 59.4 [56-28]
15 Jakobsen, Flint, Morley, Starke (fell) 59.1 [57-33]