The meeting has received a major boost with the news of a sponsorship deal which will see the winner on the night take away the UK Mobile Bars Cup and a top cash prize courtesy of the country’s leading supplier of mobile bar hire solutions.

The GB U-21 semi final incorporating the UK Mobile Bars Cup will start at the normal time of 6.30pm and with a large crowd expected (following the hugely successful start to the fourth Speedway season at the Sittingbourne Greyhound Stadium on Good Friday) fans are advised that the gates open at 5pm.

For the home side, the Kent SLYDE Kings’ exciting teenager James Shanes and local youngster Danno Verge carry the flag. Shanes has qualified for both of the last two GB U-21 Finals and will be looking to make it a hat-trick: the top ten on the night making it through to the Championship Final to be held up in Sheffield on April 14th.

Shanes already has one British Under 21 championship title to his name – having won the Grasstrack Racing version back in 2014. At the sister sport of Grasstrack, Shanes has moved onto being the nation’s top practitioner: finishing runner-up in the European Championship and winning the British Masters in 2015, so he’ll want to see a similar route to the top for him in the shale sport.

Shorne-based Verge, meanwhile, had a great start to his season on Good Friday: winning three heats and being voted man of the match in the home leg – as his local side the SLYDE-backed Kings put local rivals Eastbourne well and truly to the sword. For Danno it’s a third attempt to make it through to a first ever GB Under 21 Final and having left his teenaged days behind him (he turned 20 last weekend) the popular King will not surely have a better chance on his home track of doing so.

The chief opposition for the two local stars for the UK Mobile Bars title itself comes from a number of likely directions. King’s Lynn’s new signing Nathan Greaves has impeccable title winning credentials: four times a GB Youth national champion.

Tweedsider Liam Carr now plying his Travel Plus National League [TPNL] trade with the Coventry Storm, has a good record at Central Park and will be keen to make up for lost time having missed out through injury on the GB Under 19s Final (also held at the home of the Kings in Murston the season before last) and on last year’s U21 title chase.

West Midlands-born but Australia-raised Ellis Perks made his competitive debut in this country at that U-19 Final and can’t be ruled out of a title-winning return this time. And also making a return is Jack Kingston – a 2013 Kent Kings favourite, the young Londoner has twice finished on the rostrum in individual meetings at Central Park (in that U-19 Final and also the Laurels) and will certainly fancy his chances of taking the cash prize up for grabs on the way to qualification.

It’s two Jacks making their Central Park debuts though, who will attract a lot of attention – both with Birmingham this year, Jack Smith is the son of former British Champion and World Finalist Andy Smith; whilst Jack Parkinson-Blackburn is the reigning GB Youth Champion.

Each rider faces each other once in the classic individual format with no quarter likely to be asked or given. The GB Under 21 Championship has an amazing record of producing champions who’ve gone to represent the nation on the biggest stage including former World Champions, Peter Collins and Michael Lee (who both won the title when the event was staged as it was for many years at the old Canterbury circuit); Gary Havelock and Iwade discovery Mark Loram; and the current World number one, Speedway Grand Prix Champion Tai Woffinden.

Riders (in alphabetical order) are:
Josh Bailey (King’s Lynn)
Alfie Bowtell (Mildenhall)
Liam Carr (Coventry)
Kelsey Dugard (Isle of Wight)
Nathan Greaves (King’s Lynn)
Danyon Hume (Birmingham)
Jack Kingston (Cradley)
Ryan Kinsley (King’s Lynn)
Connor Mountain (Mildenhall)
Jack Parkinson-Blackburn (Birmingham)
Ellis Perks (Plymouth)
Danny Phillips (Stoke)
Luke Ruddick (Mildenhall)
JAMES SHANES (Kent SLYDE Kings)
Jack Smith (Birmingham)
DANNO VERGE (Kent SLYDE Kings)

Image courtesy of Elizabeth Leslie