Kent SLYDE Kings made it three away successes from three away matches so far this season with a win at Mildenhall on Sunday.

For the first time claiming victory in the Fen Tigers’ back yard and for a first time in four seasons, chalking up an away win in the National Trophy competition – winning 48-42!

Again it was a performance grounded on a solid all round team showing, with points shared out amongst the side: remarkable that on an afternoon skipper Luke Bowen will on a personal basis want quickly to forget, his charges rose admirably to the challenge: racing partner and namesake Luke Clifton scoring a season’s best so far, paid 9 and the reserve pairing of Danno Verge & Jack Thomas outscoring their rivals in the important no 6 & 7 race jackets by 13 points to 2.

The track certainly caused more than a fair share of problems to both sides, especially early doors.  It seems that the Stock Car promotion who also use the West Row circuit the night before had staged a meeting including Monster Trucks and it had left the racing circuit rutted in places and with a heavy surface.

That this was going to cause difficulties was apparent in the very first heat with both of the SLYDE Kings’ Lukes falling, along with the homesters’ Alfie Bowtell.  Clifton remounted to split the two Fen Tigers (the unscathed Halsey taking the chequered flag in what was the slowest time of the afternoon) – this opening 4-2 to Mildenhall was destined to be the only time the hosts led all meeting.

Because in heat two for a fourth match out of four, the Kings’ reserve duo of Verge & Thomas delivered a maximum 5-1 to take the visitors into a lead never relinquished.  No heat 2 5-1s at all in an entire season in 2015 has been turned around dramatically this term!

Heat 3 was to determine the rest of the meeting and effectively scupper Mildenhall’s chances.  Though a thorough track grading had taken place after the previous heat (when the home side’s Luke Ruddick had been another faller), there were still clear problems and Danny Ayres and Mildenhall’s Connor Mountain came to grief this time.  Ayres was fit to take his place in the restart but unfortunately not Mountain – withdrawing hurt from the meeting.

It is to be hoped that Mountain, who finished runner up in the GB U21 semi at Kent last Monday showing terrific form, will be fit for the national final itself at Sheffield on this coming Thursday. With Ruddick replacing Mountain in the rerun.

Ayres and former Mildenhall man David Mason gained another heat advantage for the SLYDE-backed Kings.  That four point lead retained intact despite Jon Armstrong rolling back the years to defeat Kent’s James Shanes in heat four.

Heat 5 saw more falls – the one when Bowen led on the last bend meant a 5-1 became just a 4-2: his partner Clifton taking the win and Bowen speedily remounting to take the one point after the unfortunate Ruddick had already been excluded. Heat 6 and yet another bad prang with Bowtell coming together with Shanes and the young Fen Tiger getting the disqualification – James’ win in the rerun over Halsey was significant: another heat advantage and the lead stretched out to eight.

Four home riders winning the next five heats arrested the decline for the Fen Tigers – and one, a 5-1 by Halsey & Bowtell when Ayres became the latest faller in heat 10, threatened a full scale revival.  But victory was all-but confirmed by a maximum of their own by Ayres and the monumentally-improved Verge in heat 12 – when, with Ruddick having joined Mountain as an injury withdrawal, Mildenhall could only put out one rider.

And the National Trophy points were confirmed by a magnificent win by Shanes over Halsey and the otherwise unbeaten Armstrong in heat 13.

The meeting finished uncomfortably for Shanes with a fall in a final heat 5-1 reverse but by then – though battered and bruised – the visitors were celebrating a club record three consecutive away wins.

Team boss Chris Hunt was understandably jubilant at another away day success, but obviously consideration of the track conditions dominated his immediate after-match comments:

“We knew it was going to be a tough match and that they were likely to prepare a track with plenty of dirt on it.  As it happened the conditions, not helped obviously by the outside factors of the Monster Trucks being on there the night before, were actually to cost the home side more than us.  They were certainly challenging conditions and we’re happy to win and to move on.”

Image courtesy of Elizabeth Leslie