Next Monday (Kent Speedway club return to Travel Plus National League [TPNL] action – it’s interesting to reflect that due to a combination of rain offs and the Cup & Trophy fixtures which have occupied their attention, the last TPNL match the Kent SLYDE Kings rode in was away at the home of the visitors coming on US Independence Day: the Buxton Hitmen – even though that was back on June 12th.
As that was a 57-32 points victory to the SLYDE Kings, Monday is an opportunity to secure a league back to back double against the eponymous Hitmen!
The family-run club from Derbyshire have two chief characteristics: one is longevity (they have been in this division continuously since the League’s inception, as the British League Division III, back in 1994) and the other is consistency: changing their line up perhaps less than any other competing club year in year out.
This year that aim to change as little as necessary their side though, has been sorely challenged by a succession of injuries and other periods of lay off for the septet they started the season with.
Club skipper the New Zealander, Jade Mudgway has been out due to injury and missed the SLYDE Kings’ trip up to Hi Edge last month – Mudgway has made his return to British Speedway this year having not been seen on these shores since 2012. His last third tier campaign was with Buxton back in 2009 when he helped them to the Play Off semi and to the Knock-out Cup Final.
Providing top end back-up for Mudgway in the plan their team boss Jason Pipe had for 2016 is a rider very well known to Kent fans: Olly Greenwood. No relation to the track record holder at the Speedway track based in the Sittingbourne Greyhound Stadium, Daniel, this Greenwood had his finest moment in the sport at Central Park, back in 2014 when he won the British Under 19s title with an imperious maximum – marking him down (rather like his namesake was until it all badly unravelled in the National Trophy [NT] Final..) as one of the most notably good riders around the CP circuit. Olly was unfortunately injured in that heavy defeat his side suffered at the hands of the SLYDE Kings last month and will be looking to make up for his enforced absence in the latter part of that match by contributing points on Monday.
Another unfortunate injury victim has been former motocrosser from Bowflatts in Cumbria, Ryan Blacklock; and to complete the club’s woes, the experienced Steven Jones once of Newcastle & Cleveland in his native north-east is also currently out. Pipe has moved to bring in another experienced rider to cover for Jones in the form of David Speight.
The 36-year-old from Bradford who rode for Sheffield in his home county back in the early noughties made a brief comeback last term after seven years out of the saddle. Speight actually won his first ride at Central Park last season when he was part of a Hitmen team who lost 47-45.
Actually this year, without a win at home yet in a rain-affected season, the Hitmen have been more successful on the road: winning at Coventry to claim their only TPNL points to date and losing by only four points (having led all the way up to the penultimate heat) in the Knock-out Cup at Cradley – so they cannot be underestimated even though they come currently laying in the lower reaches of the table.
Actually this year, without a win at home yet in a rain-affected season, the Hitmen have been more successful on the road: winning at Coventry to claim their only TPNL points to date and losing by only four points (having led all the way up to the penultimate heat) in the Knock-out Cup at Cradley – so they cannot be underestimated even though they come currently laying in the lower reaches of the table.
Shelby Rutherford also missed the Kings’ visit to the Dales but has since returned from a mid-season sabbatical. Like Mudgway, Rutherford is an antipodean (one of just a handful in this division in 2016) and is also a returnee after six years away – the 27 year old from Perth has not ridden at Central Park before, with 2009 being his only season in the sport in the UK when he appeared for the Newport Mavericks.
At the lower order in the team, one-time Kent Kings rider (he made a few appearances in 2013) Lee Geary has figured of late and two 2016 newcomers and so would be riding at Central Park for the first time if they get the selection nod are Ryan Burton and Chris Hay. Hay is a Yorkshire man from Skipton and the match versus the SLYDE Kings last month at Hi Edge was his first ever competitive fixture – Hay has a background similar to Kent’s own Danny Ayres: a very promising teenager motocrosser (in Hay’s case in the GB Maxxis Team aged just 18), he gave up that sport and now in his late 20s is seeking to make a success of the shale game. Burton meanwhile is from Sunderland and scored three points in the return fixture up at Buxton.
For the home side, the events of Monday involving the ‘Guest’ selected on that occasion to cover for their injured skipper and no. 1 Luke Bowen has made Team manager Chris Hunt reconsider his options – and now Daniel Greenwood (who performed so disappointingly in the NT Final defeat) is out. A decision on who will be the ‘Guest’ instead will be made later in the week.
Luke Clifton (leg) and David Mason (ribs) are injury worries at this juncture. Meanwhile the new averages are out on 1st. July and that will result in Clifton returning to the main body of the side and young Jack Thomas reverting to one of the reserve berths.
The meeting Kent SLYDE Kings vs Buxton Hitmen is on Monday 4th. July – with a 6.30pm start time (gates open at 5pm).
Image courtesy of Elizabeth Leslie
TAGS: Kent Kings