Kent CTA Fire Kings consolidated their second position in the National League this weekend, with a win against Buxton but they also fell to defeat against Stoke.
It is now a case of watching and waiting for the Kings as they have one match left to come away at Kings Lynn next month. They will now have to see how the teams below them with matches in hand fare over the coming weeks.
Having welcomed back skipper Simon Lambert (returning as he promised, from his badly broken hand in record time to be available for the vital Bank Holiday weekend) at Stoke on Saturday evening, the CTA Fire-backed Kings suffered another blow in a 19 points reverse at the home of the Potters, when the in-form Benji Compton aggravated his own troublesome injury, to his wrist.
The match at Stoke had seen the Kings fail really to fire up – missing their number one Ben Morley away on Elite League duty and with Vice-captain David Mason and Kent’s two inexperienced reserves Danny Ayres and Jason Garrad struggling somewhat on a very difficult circuit.
Stoke are certainly among the contenders for the top four position Kent crave and so failing to get anything from the visit to the Potteries was disappointing, but everyone in the camp was clear that the main objective of the weekend had to be a win of sufficient size (by seven or more points) at rivals Buxton on the following afternoon to secure all four points.
With Morley back on the Sunday and also Aaron Baseby returning to the side at Buxton and Lambert full of confidence after an immensely impressive 13 points score at Stoke, the CTA Fire Kings (even without Compton) took the long and winding road up into the Dales to Hi Edge Raceway with high ambitions of their own.
So it proved on an afternoon that will long remain in the memory of the sizeable contingent of intrepid visiting Kent fans. It was in particular a personal triumph for David Mason, under power at Stoke the record points scorer in Speedway’s third tier had what was probably his best ever away day as a Kent King and one of the best afternoons of even his long and distinguished career: scoring an unbeaten by an opponent paid 15 points maximum.
‘Magic’ as he’s universally known in the sport, certainly put a spell on the opposition on the notoriously difficult to negotiate Buxton racing strip to better by one more, his already massively impressive all-time career record of number of maximums in this division. Skipper Simon Lambert matched his vice-captain’s return of four heat wins and with Ben Morley recording two race victories and the two reserves Ayres and Garrad also clocking up two three pointers between them, it meant the visitors were first past the chequered flag a remarkable 12 (out of 15) times.
A brilliant run of maximum heat wins (boosted again by that king of the bonus points, Aaron Baseby) with four in a row at the end, meant the necessary winning margin had been achieved and then blasted away with a 24 points victory!
The side had hoped to celebrate success with a homecoming and the small matter of a local county challenge versus Arena Essex on Bank Holiday Monday, but sadly the shockingly unseasonal weather and all-day rain-fall meant that meeting, scheduled for Central Park, was called off long before start time. No date yet available for the restaging.
The County Challenge with the Hammers seems rather jinxed as the leg at the Arena Essex home of Lakeside Speedway just the other side of the Dartford Crossing was a weather casualty exactly a month previously and no date is yet arranged for that restaging either.
No home meeting next Monday so the next time the rampant Kings return to action is on Monday September 8th vs Leicester Lion Cubs in an outstanding National Trophy match.
Results and Kent scorers:
Stoke 55 Kent 36 (Lambert 13; Compton 7+1; Luke Chessell [guest] 6; Garrad 5; Ayres 3; Mason 2+1)
Buxton 32 Kent 56 (Mason 14+1; Lambert 14; Morley 10+2; Garrad 7+1; Baseby 6+3; Ayres 5)