What was billed as a Kings trilogy has now become a stand alone thriller. After the disappointment of two postponements in two days the Kent SLYDE Kings take on the Plymouth Devils tonight in their last home Travel Plus National League fixture.

The Kings will be looking for a win, to enhance their Play Off aspirations as news is pending on the restaging date for the visit to Buxton. An announcement will be made later this morning.

Team news as far as the Kent SLYDE Kings are concerned is that Bradley Andrews will be missing this evening due to the finger injuries he sustained in the crash at Birmingham 5 days ago. His place will be taking by a rider recently released by our opposition this evening: William O’Keefe.

William finished runner up in the Futurama meeting staged at Central Park back in June, and also made his career debut for Mildenhall at Kent on the 9th of May 2016.

Plymouth although struggling currently in the League Table will be no pushovers this evening as they arrive at Central Park with three former League Riders Champions in their ranks. Two of which also happen to be former Kent Kings.

Recently moving up in the side to take the number 1 race jacket is Adam Roynon. Adam hadn’t raced in the National League since 2012 when he had a spell with Dudley. Adam joined the Devils after being released by SGB Championship side Workington. Steve Boxall and Benji Compton are no strangers to the Central Park faithful having both been former Kings in the opening season of 2013.

Steve then moved up a level with Rye House Rockets, whilst Benji had one further season as a King in 2014. Steve Boxall is also the only rider to have ever won the League Riders Championship twice – winning it under its former name of the Conference League Riders Championship in 2005 when he represented the Rye House Raiders and then adding the National League Riders Championship in 2013 as a Kent King.

The Devon based Devils have riders in their side with their roots firmly planted in the county, with both Richard Andrews and Henry Atkins being based within the confines of the Devon county lines. Richard Andrews was previously a part of the Devon Demons that raced at the St Boniface Arena in 2014 and was a part of the Eastbourne Eagles treble winning side a year later in 2015.

For 16 year old Henry Atkins this is first full season as a team member of a National League despite getting outings for the Coventry Storm, including against Kent at the iconic and sadly now defunct Brandon Stadium in the Knock Out Cup match.

So it’s all set up to be a thrilling encounter as the Kings look to round off the season without a home defeat in the league for the first time in their history, 9 have tried all have failed just one remain to deny the Kings the unbeaten record and that is Plymouth, and the action gets underway at 6:30.

 

Teams in Alphabetical Order:

Kent: Luke Bowen (capt.), Dan Greenwood, Ben Hopwood, George Hunter, William O’Keefe, Anders Rowe and Jack Thomas

 

Plymouth: Richard Andrews, Henry Atkins, Steve Boxall, Benji Compton (capt.), Jamie Halder (tbc), Adam Roynon and Callum Walker

Picture supplied by Elizabeth Leslie.