Kent SLYDE Kings travel to the West Midlands on Friday evening in pursuit of a Baker’s Dozen at Brandon.
Yes, with an undefeated run this season now stretched to 12 matches, the Sittingbourne-based Speedway side take on Coventry Storm aiming to ensure the 13th. match of a memorable campaign isn’t going to be unlucky.
The more important statistic though, the side managed by Chris Hunt will want to be able to quote at the close of proceedings is that they’ll have scored enough points in this first leg Second Round National Knock-Out Cup [NKOC] fixture against the Storm side based at the famous old Brandon Stadium, to give themselves a great chance in the second leg (to be held on Monday week 20/6) to progress to the Semi-finals.
The SLYDE-backed Kings are going to be without heat leader Danny Ayres both on Friday and for Sunday’s Travel Plus National League [TPNL] fixture at Buxton [see separate preview], as the very busy Newmarket-based racer is on Premier League title for the side he doubles up with in that division, Glasgow Tigers.
Hunt has opted for these two matches to use a ‘Guest’ to cover for the Kings’ talismanic no. 3: on Friday he’s turned to the services of the very experienced Ben Wilson. The 30-year-old is a former holder of the British Under 21 title, with considerable experience previously in the PL and remains a potent force riding in the TPNL for Stoke Potters.
Coventry Storm are boosted by the return from injury of Liam Carr – the popular Tweedsider having missed the West Midlanders’ last three matches (all defeats) after injuring himself in a crash up at King’s Lynn. Carr suffered a broken scaphoid – the latest in a string of unfortunate injuries for the 20-year-old – but has proven his fitness and returns to the Storm side.
There he will link up at heat leader level with a rider the Kent SLYDE Kings will certainly have hugely healthy respect for: Dan Greenwood. A former GB champion himself (in the case of the Chesterfield-born racer it was at Under 15 level back in 2007) he may have been on the losing side when the Storm went down to a heavy loss by 66-24 points last month, but Greenwood stole the show that evening at Central Park lowering the track record and scoring 13 points.
That he recorded more than half his side’s total (albeit in the absence of the normally potent Carr) tells something of the story of the season so far for Laurence Rogers’ charges who have struggled in the lower order points-scoring wise. That situation is not helped at all by the double injury blow they suffered in their last match (an away defeat at Mildenhall) which sees them without the services of Martin Knuckey and Jamie Halder on Friday.
The Cornishman Knuckey, in his fourth season at the club, has suffered a likely-to-be season ending broken leg – they cover his loss with Rider Replacement. Meanwhile, Halder has suffered a break to the radius bone in the elbow and is likely to be out for another three weeks.
London-born Ryan Terry-Daley, grasstracker Calum Walker and the Devon-based Connor Dwyer will be joined by a yet to be announced sixth man to complete the line up for the Storm who will be aiming to repeat their two legged victory (albeit it narrowly) of the Kings back in the 2014 Championship Play-offs.
The meeting gets underway at 7.30pm and is staged at Brandon Stadium, Rugby Road, Brandon, Coventry CV8 3GJ.