Stoke are the Kent SLYDE Kings’ next opponents at home with the Potters the visitors in a CGNL encounter at Central Park on Monday.
Last year the side from Staffs (who recovered admirably from a disappointing wooden spoon in 2013) proved something of a ‘bogey side’ for the Kings – winning at Central Park in both the National Trophy and the KOC.
So with a need to bounce back from the disappointment of a home defeat by Birmingham last time out, Monday’s match up with Malcolm Vasey’s men from the Potteries assumes great significance.
Leading the Potters again is that grand master of National League racing, Jon Armstrong. Armstrong has been, there done it all and got a massive list of trophies on on his t-shirt.
League Riders champion in 1997 and part of the Pairs winning duo of 2014 are just the book-ends to an amazing career.
And the Mighty Midget from Manchester is still terrific value and continues to deliver the goods, including taking away the Bronze Helmet on one of his visits to the Sittingbourne home of Kent last term.
Also retained from last year are Chris Widman and Lee Payne. Widman has established a reputation as something of a Central Park specialist – last seen last month riding again for the Wimbledon Dons.
Payne from Wigan is a former 2012 AMCA MX1 Championship winner and his scraps with fellow MotoX convertee, Danny Ayres are sure to be a highlight.
Ryan Terry-Daley has plenty of experience of racing at Central Park too – the London-born Kiwi is always a very popular visitor.
And the Potters have a strong line up assembled too now that Paul Burnett and Danny Phillips are in the squad. Phillips won the lot with Cradle in 2014 whilst Burnett is one of the all-time highest points scorers at this level with over 230 third tier appearances.
Having not ridden since 2011 this will be his Central Park debut – rather surprisingly, considering his pedigree, that appearance is in the reserve berth for Vasey’s men.
The presence of Burnett in the reserves represents another challenge for the SLYDE Kings pairing there, where Chris Hunt is poised to make an order change with Adam Sheppard going to no.6 and Danno Verge shifting to no. 7.
Line ups in alphabetical order:
Kent SLYDE Kings: Danny Ayres; Aaron Baseby; Jamie Couzins; Ben Morley; James Shanes; Adam Sheppard; Danno Verge
Stoke Potters: Jon Armstrong; Paul Burnett; Ryan MacDonald; Lee Payne; Danny Phillips; Ryan Terry-Daley; Chris Widman
Picture supplied by Elizabeth Leslie.