Kent SLYDE Kings’ excellent start to their 2016 Speedway campaign continued with a sixth successive win in all competitions on Monday at Central Park.

Gaining a substantial first leg advantage over the Isle of Wight Warriors in a National Knock-Out Cup tie.

Level on points after four heats (after an opening stanza which saw top men for the homesters, Luke Bowen and James Shanes both hugely uncharacteristically excluded for falls) hadn’t represented the most positive of starts for the Murston-based Kings.

But the ship was steadied by the increasingly impressive reserve pairing of Danno Verge and Jack Thomas (two wins for the hugely improved racer from Shorne, Verge and another paid double figures return for the revelationary teenager from Norwich, Thomas); and another superb showing by the Central Park fans’ darling, Danny Ayres turned a two points advantage with a third of the meeting gone, to a likely-to-be-decisive 22 over the two legs at the end.
For the visitors there was a fair bit to take positives from, Mark Baseby performed the rare feat of beating the in-form Shanes on his home track and Lee Smart recorded a season’s fastest ride around Central Park in denying Ayres that still elusive fist ever maximum.  That victory by the Sevenoaks-based Baseby was the stand out race of the match (heat 7) – not in truth, for the ex-Sittingbourne Crusaders’ rider’s three points but the amazing simultaneous pass by the chasing Kings’ Shanes and Verge of the other Isle of Wight man in the race, Smart.

It was heroics of this type which not only kept a Bank Holiday crowd happy, but suggested that a great start to 2016 may lead to some hugely positive and gleaming outcomes for the Garden of England side come season’s end.
Next up for the SLYDE Kings is an away trip to reigning Travel Plus National League [TPNL) champions Birmingham on Wednesday (4/5); and then trying to clinch progress into the National Trophy [NT] final by beating Suffolk side, Mildenhall Fen Tigers at Central Park on Monday 9 May (6.30pm start time )