Kent’s biggest challenge of the home season so far at Central Park Stadium sees the Group leaders, unbeaten Mildenhall Fen Tigers visiting.

The Suffolk side moved to the top of the Southern Group with a big win over Eastbourne yesterday at West Row – though a remarkable 20 points were contributed by their 15 year old protege Drew Kemp, who shan’t be travelling to Kent as he has GCSE exam commitments.

Coming in to replace Kemp is the Canterbury-based teenager Andrew Palmer – it’s a big day for Andrew who makes his senior competitive Speedway debut as the unallocated three pointer which is the Fen Tigers’ management’s only option to cover for the prolific Kemp.

There are further difficulties for the visitors’ team boss Phil Kirk with Josh Bailey aggravating an injury against his former club Eastbourne and joining long term injury victims Jordan Jenkins and Sam Bebee on the missing list. This means two ‘Guests’ in the line up and Kirk opts for two former Fen Tigers (which at least means their travelling fans can have some sense of identification with an otherwise unfamiliar line up): Ryan Terry-Daley & Tom Bacon.

The Kiwi Terry-Daley scored a best ever away match paid 11 against Kent just last week for Plymouth so looks to be a useful pick to cover for Jenkins; whilst Bacon (who rides for Birmingham) is a long acknowledged Central Park track specialist. The popular Midlander Bacon is almost certainly an improvement on Bailey and increases the challenge represented – especially as the other heat leader in the Suffolk side’s ranks is former King, Danny Ayres.

For Kent, it’s confirmed that Sandwich-based James Laker will continue to cover for broken foot victim Jacob Clouting at reserve and there are no other injury or other absenteeism problems for Chris Hunt’s charges. Jack Thomas has bounced back from his mechanical woes which robbed him of a rostrum place on Thursday in the GB Under 19s by scoring a season’s best paid ten for his SGB Championship side, Glasgow on Satuday.

Meanwhile Nathan Stoneman got in some much needed laps by being Mildenhall’s ‘Guest’ for Jenkins at West Row on Sunday – scoring paid eight.

The action gets underway at Central Park Stadium at 6.30pm.

Teams [in alphabetical order]:

Kent SLYDE Kings:
Luke Bowen; Taylor Hampshire; James Laker; Anders Rowe; Alex Spooner; Nathan Stoneman; Jack Thomas

Mildenhall Fen Tigers:
Danny Ayres; Tom Bacon [G]; Ryan Kinsley; Matt Marson; Andrew Palmer; Ryan Terry-Daley [G]; plus Rider Replacement for Sam Bebee; no 8 tba