The meeting started with fighting talk from the home camp with a less than generous comment made over the stadium PA by Mildenhall promoter Kevin Jolly that the only reason his side had lost so badly the previous Monday at Central Park was a poor track at Kent’s stadium home. Ironically his words were broadcast in front of a backdrop of an extraordinarily heavy and uneven track surface at the Fenland venue – which even more ironically was ultimately to catch out his own team rather than the plucky visitors.
It was an eventful start in the opening races as in Heat 1 the SLYDE Kings’ first-timer ‘guest’ Adam Roynon became the first victim of the track conditions and ran out of room on bend 2, crashing into the fence as the red lights came on the two Mildenhall riders getting in a tangle on bends 3 and 4.
Heat 3 saw Kent take the lead after a 5-1 heat advantage from Ben Hopwood and Anders Rowe over Luke Ruddick. It was a lead they were destined never to surrender in what is a first ever win at West Row for the club.
Two shared heats were to follow before another until an almost decisive Heat 12 – Armstrong suffered mechanical gremlins and the Kings duo of Hopwood and Andrews got the better of Verge to move the Kings seven clear (39-32) with just three heats to go.
That last race brought about a scenario which saw anything less than a 5-1 for the home team seal victory for the Kings. There were none among the large contingent of travelling Kings’ followers who didn’t recall that this was exactly the same scenario last year when a last heat 5-1 reverse had left Kent hearts broken. And lightning nearly did strike twice as it was the Mountain/Halsey combination that held the lead until, 370 days after such bad luck befell the Kings at West Row before, lady luck this time was in favour of the visitors and the previously unbeaten Halsey suffered an engine failure which meant a shared heat and the league points to the exultant Kings.
This victory sees Kent move to within five points of the Play Off places with meetings in hand over all teams currently in the top four. The Kings have a busy week ahead taking on Lakeside on Monday (14/8 at 6:30pm) with Roynon continuing his stint as ‘guest’ number one and travelling to Plymouth on Friday (18/8 at 7:15pm).
Mildenhall
C. Mountain 3 3 2 2’ 3 13+1
J. Jenkins 1 1 3 1’ 6+1
J. Armstrong 0 1 2 R 3
L. Ruddick 1 0 0 3 4
D. Halsey 3 3 3 3 R 12
S. Woods FX 0 0 0
D. Verge 2 1 1 1 0 5
Kent
A Roynon FX 2’ 2 0 4+1
Rider Replacement
B Hopwood 3 3 2 3 3 1’ 15+1
A Rowe 2’ 1’ 0 1’ 2 6+3
J Thomas 2 0 2 3 1 2 10
B Andrews 2 3 2 F 2’ 9+1
G Hunter FX 0 1 1’ 2+1
HT
1: (Re-run) Mountain, Andrews, Jenkins, Roynon (FX) (4-2)
2: (Re-Run) Andrews, Verge, Woods (FX) Hunter (FX) (6-5)
3: Hopwood, Rowe, Ruddick, Armstrong (7-10)
4: (Re-Run) Halsey, Thomas, Verge, Hunter (11-12)
5: Hopwood, Roynon, Armstrong, Ruddick (12-17)
6: Mountain, Andrews, Jenkins, Thomas (16-19)
7: Halsey, Hopwood, Rowe, Woods (19-22)
8: Jenkins, Thomas, Verge, Andrews (F) (23-24)
9: Thomas, Armstrong, Hunter, Ruddick (25-28)
10: Hopwood, Mountain, Jenkins, Rowe (28-31)
11: Halsey, Roynon, Rowe, Woods (31-34)
12: Hopwood, Andrews, Verge, Armstrong (ret) (32-39)
13: (Re-Run) Halsey, Mountain, Thomas, Roynon (37-40)
14: Ruddick, Rowe, Hunter, Verge (40-43)
15: Mountain, Thomas, Hopwood, Halsey (ret) (43-46)