After the run of away fixtures, the Kent SLYDE Kings take on the Plymouth Devils in what is their final home Travel Plus National League match this coming Monday.
The Kings will be hoping that Bradley Andrews has recovered sufficiently from the finger injuries he sustained at Birmingham to take his place in the line-up; if he is unable to take his place a guest will have to be brought in at reserve which means a rider with an assessed 3.00 average who is currently not in a declared 1 to 7 of another TPNL side. With Kent having recently moved into the Play Off places in the table ,
Lining up against the Kings once again is the 2013 Kent number one Steve Boxall. Steve has visited twice recently as a guest for Lakeside and as part of the Wimbledon side in the John Cearns Cup match three weeks ago. Steve is the only rider two currently win the third tier League Riders Championship twice; achieving this when he represented Kent in 2013. Joining him in the heat leader berth is our guest from the Lakeside match Adam Roynon. Adam had a night he’d quickly like to forget suffering mechanical problems and then falling when over trying in his last outing. Adam also a former National League Riders Champion has recently taken over the number one race jacket at the St Boniface Arena.
The last heat leader berth for the Devils is filled by another former Kent rider, Benji Compton. Benji seemed to have retired from the sport before being tempted back by the Devils promotion. Benji even takes the step of flying from his Yorkshire base to Plymouth for the home matches. Plymouth’s heat leader trio may pose a few questions to their Kent counterparts of Luke Bowen, Ben Hopwood and Jack Thomas. Whilst fans will be hoping of a repeat of the classic races between Bowen and Boxall from the Kent v Wimbledon match.
A rider who will be making his first ever appearance at Central Park is young Henry Atkins. Atkins had appearances for the Coventry Storm side last season, this is his first full season in a side and has held his own in both spells at reserve and second string.
The other members of the Devils side are Richard Andrews and Callum Walker. Richard Andrews hails from Devon and was a member of the Devon Demons side that ran in 2014 out of Plymouth. Hailing from Gloucester Walker is another former Coventry Storm rider and kept his connections with Plymouth team boss Laurence Rogers by moving to Plymouth for the 2017 season.
The Kings will have a familiar look about them in the engine room of the side with recent signing Dan Greenwood and the talented teenager Anders Rowe filling the second the reserve berths and George Hunter hoping to continue his recent run of match winning performances at reserve.
The action at Central Park will get underway as usual at 6:30pm with the riders parade shortly before.