Nine points clear of Eastbourne in second place in Speedway’s Travel Plus National League  going into Monday’s Bank Holiday clash with their local rivals, there’s a real opportunity to cement the runners up slot in the divisional standings for the Kent SLYDE Kings when the Eagles land at Central Park.

This memorable campaign began for the Sittingbourne-based Kings with a double over their neighbours from just over the border in Sussex – a 109-70 drubbing on a less than Good Friday for the reigning National Knock-out Cup [NKOC] holders. 

Change has been the order of the day though since then, with only three riders remaining in the Eastbourne Eagles squad from the septet who visited Central Park on that opening day of the season all the way back at the Easter weekend. 

Having beaten Kent six out of six in 2015 in a campaign where as well as the NKOC they won the National Trophy and the Gold Cup (last year’s equivalent of the Play Offs), it was no surprise that the after those embarrassing reverses, the father and son management pairing at Arlington of Martin & Connor Dugard quickly rang the changes.  And it’s worked too, as, laying in third place, they seemed nailed out (with matches in hand) to join Birmingham & Kent in the all-important top four and qualify for the play-offs which this term decide the destiny of the TPNL title itself.

Their most significant addition has been Team GB World Cup rider Adam Ellis – who also stars for another south-coast club, Poole Pirates in the Elite League.  That’s an issue for Bank Holiday Monday though, as the French-born Ellis is on Pirates duty and so the Eagles are forced into covering their number one with a ‘Guest’.  Difficult to match his average anyhow and with most suitable alternatives on club duty for their sides, the Eagles management have gone for Central Park track expert, Mark Baseby in the no. 1 race jacket on Monday.

A further change involves another ‘Ellis’ – in this case, the British-born but Australian-raised, Ellis Perks – the former Cradley man moving on from the Isle of Wight when various injury and team building changes saw the likes of Ben Hopwood and Richard Andrews depart the Eagles eyrie.

Coming in as a new reserve pairing have been former GB Youth Champ and one-time Kent Kings’ rider Luke Harris; and when he turned 15, the hugely-promising, locally-nurtured product, Tom Brennan.  The Eagles management are using young Brennan sparingly in the TPNL this term with 2017 in mind, so Orpington-based, Charley Powell rides at no. 7 as he did for the Eagles’ Good Friday visit.
And he’ll be joined by the other two survivors from that 52-37 battering: skipper, Jake Knight and Maidstone-based (who rode at Central Park last Monday along with young Brennan in the Laurels), Georgie Wood.

The final slot will be Rider Replacement for Gary Cottham – the former Sittingbourne Crusader having made the briefest of comebacks with his home county club before being stopped in his tracks by a badly broken collarbone. The no. 8 berth will filled by Brennan.

Injuries have bedevilled the hosts, the Kent SLYDE Kings in recent weeks so it will be a huge relief if skipper Luke Bowen and the experienced David Mason (who spent last year with Eastbourne of course) come through fitness tests on Sunday to make their comebacks into the homesters’ septet which would then be back to a familiar look and at full strength.

Team details will be confirmed then in the morning (Monday 29/8) for the Kent SLYDE Kings for this TPNL match which gets underway at 3pm (gates at 1.30pm) at Central Park on the Eurolink estate in Sittingbourne.

Image courtesy of Ian Charles