Kent SLYDE Kings successfully negotiated their First Round Cup tie Second Leg at the Isle of Wight on Tuesday night.
They won by ten points on the night and go through as convincing victors by 107 to 73 on aggregate.
With nine heat winners in total (including braces from the skipper Luke Bowen, the in-form Luke Clifton and Danny Ayres plus an opening hat trick of race victories by the flying James Shanes) this was another very sold and impressive all round team performance from the Sittingbourne-based outfit, who now take their unbeaten start to the season to a club record eleven matches in all competitions.
In terms of this competition, the National League Knock-out Cup success over the Hampshire side propels the SLYDE Kings into Round Two and there’s little time to rest on their laurels as the first leg of that particular last eight tie is on this coming Friday (10/6) away at Coventry.
The Warriors did take an initial lead on the evening with their number one Joe Jacobs holding the often irresistible force that is Bowen at bay in the opening heat, with a hay fever-affected Jack Thomas at the back; and then that lead was extended by a 4-2 to the home side in the second race.
Heat three was pivotal really with the Warriors’ Kent-based rider Mark Baseby crashing heavily and having sadly to withdraw injured from the meeting. Ayres who came off in the same crash got back up to win the rerun with his team mate David Mason tucked in behind in second and from that juncture the Kings were not to trail on the night again.
With Shanes winning his first three rides and Clifton & Thomas combining for a 5-1 in heat 8 (one of a decisive mid meeting run of five heat winners in a row from the visitors) a ten point lead was established going into heat 13. The match could have been decided there and then but both Bowen and Shanes missed the start and got rather tangled up together in their efforts to overhaul the two homesters in front of them.
The 5-1 to the Warriors gave them brief hope that they might get the consolation of a result on the night but Clifton and David Mason combined superbly in heat 14 to clinch victory with a 5-1 of their own.