The Kent CTA Fire Kings fell to defeat on Sunday evening despite a nip and tuck battle for valuable National Speedway points with Mildenhall.
Trailing by just a solitary point with only four heats remaining, it was finally to be a massive disappointment that even the bonus point evaded the visitors as somehow Mildenhall surged ahead by a further 14 points including successive maximums in the final three heats.
Up to that disappointing climax all had looked set fair for some success on the road from the point skipper Simon Lambert scorched home in heat one, recording the fastest time of the season at the West Row circuit.
Eventual man of the meeting homester Connor Mountain – reaching the summit in this one, of a career-best return of paid 14 – was the victor in the reserves race but a race win in heat three by Ben Morley (who like his skipper relishes the small Mildenhall circuit) saw the gap reduced to two points.
A win by the other Connor, Master Coles formerly of the CTA Fire Kings in the next race gave food for thought; but when Morley made in two wins out of two and was followed home by Luke Chessell in heat seven it was still too close to call.
Much depended on new man Aaron Baseby going out against the man he’d been swapped with, Coles in the next race; and all seemed set up for the Sevenoaks speedster as he led only to fall and leave the home pairing to grab a vital 5-1.
That feat was repeated in the following race with an out-of-sorts David Mason unable to split the home pairing of Halsey and Johnson. The ten point’s gap at this juncture worked in favour of the visitors though, as the unbeaten Morley was out in the next ride and could go for ‘double points’ under the ‘Tactical Rider’ rule. Six points were duly delivered with Chessell holding off Coles to secure a 7-2 and put the Central Park-based Kent side right back in it.
Even better was to follow in heat 11 with Lambert and Baseby in maximum form and suddenly the match was all but tied up at 35-34.
Few could’ve predicted at that point that neither Morley nor Lambert were to secure another race win and indeed battling Ben’s second place behind the Fen Tigers’ skipper Halsey in heat 12 was to be the only time a Kent rider was to finish ahead of an opponent in that disappointing final quartet of races.
Not for the want of trying in an ultimately decisive heat 13, as Lambert gave the home number one Jacobs a tremendous run for his money.
But a 5-1 there saw Mildenhall home as victors and two more in heats 14 & 15 meant they secured all the points. The final result was extremely harsh on the CTA Fire Kings cheered on by a whole coach-load of travelling fans.
Result: Mildenhall 54 Kent 39
CTA Fire Kings’ scorers: Morley 14; Lambert 10; Chessell 4+1; Mason 4; Baseby 3+2; Danny Ayres 3+1; Luke Harris 1+1
The side need to regroup from this disappointment quickly, as today its back home to their Sittingbourne base to take on league pace-setters Coventry Storm.
The skipper Simon Lambert is missing and is replaced at number one as a ‘Guest’ by Ben Hopwood. The National League action gets underway at Central Park at 6.30pm.