A promising start and level pegging still after nine heats on the night (24 of the tie) ultimately turned into disappointment for the Kent SLYDE Kings, as they slipped to a 14 points defeat to local rivals Eastbourne Eagles 52-38 on Saturday night (29/9) in the Knock Out Cup Semi Final second leg - meaning a 97-83 defeat on aggregate.
It began well for the visitors when 'Guest' for the evening, Drew Kemp took a tapes to flag victory in the opening race; and with Georgie Wood’s mechanical troubles from the previous evening continuing, it gave a third place to Anders Rowe to put the Kings ahead for the first time in the tie. Wood was to recover from his mechanical hangover from the evening before when he was the incumbent 'Guest' in the Kent no. 1 race jacket, to top score for the Eagles - unbeaten by an opponent after his first heat woes.
The lead was short-lived however, as Eastbourne took a maximum heat advantage at the second attempt to complete the reserves race. The first attempt got no further than the first bend as Kings' reserve Jamie Couzins came off and partner Alex Spooner couldn't avoid him and also came down heavily.
Heat 3 saw the Eagles feathers ruffled: Kent’s Welsh Wizard Nathan Stoneman scythed between the Eastbourne pairing of Mark Baseby and Charley Powell exiting bend 2 on lap 1 to take the victory. After the race Baseby ignored Stoneman's attempts at a handshake choosing instead to exchange words with his opposing number, before Powell waded in striking out at the Kent rider - stoking the ire of the travelling fans who hadn't forgotten his tape breaking antics earlier in the season. Further words were exchanged when Stoneman returned to the pits. Sadly, after peace had looked like it had broken out after a sporting first leg, the pumped up nature of such antics from the less than generous hosts was destined to make this the most bad-tempered of clashes again.
Kent carried on with the winning feeling in heat 4 with Jack Thomas brilliantly defeating Tom Brennan to keep the gap at a two point deficit. And then the Kings turned things on their head in the fifth race: Baseby was excluded for a first bend fall in the initial staging and in the rerun Kemp and Rowe teamed up for a brilliant example of team riding that belied their tender years of 16, to shut out Powell to put the Kings back in front. Could the massed ranks of Kent fans dare to dream?
A 4-2 in favour of the hosts in heat 6 levelled proceedings once again and this was how they stayed until the end of the 9th race, with Kent providing all three heat winners in heats 7,8 and 9. These came in the form of the ever willing Stoneman, followed by Rowe delivering his now customary heat 8 victory and then inspirational skipper Thomas.
Heat 10 though proved pivotal in the context of the match. In the first staging, Wood and Stoneman came together in the first corner with both coming down heavily. Wood seemed to be under the illusion that Stoneman was at fault and tried to confront his rival as he was on the track. The restaging saw the home side take a maximum heat win though to lead by four points, 32-28 at the interval stage.
After the interval Kemp made it three wins out of three - sadly from the visitors' perspective the race was only drawn as Brennan and German U21 international Ethan Spiller packed the minor places. This was followed by a three race salvo which all but wrapped up the match and the tie for the home side. A 4-2 in the 12th heat was followed by back to back 5-1’s in heats 13 and 14. Sadly there was further unseemly behaviour from the Eastbourne contingent in the pits between these two 5-1s, when the brilliant youngster Kemp was targetted. The racing in the heat which preceded the fracas was close indeed between Kemp, Wood and Brennan. Kemp locked up at one stage allowing Brennan to get around the outside of him, Wood then charged hard underneath Kemp entering the third lap. Quite why this led to such unsavoury scenes in the pits will need to be the subject of some investigation - but the bottom line is the sport is the loser when things like that take place.
The upshot for Kent after this is that they provided the majority of heat winners - and it's always tough to go down to any defeat (let alone by as many as 14 points) in such circumstances. There's no question that failing to take the minor places, with 11 lasts and an exclusion, was what held the Kings back allowing Eastbourne into a fourth consecutive KOC Final.
Next track action for the SLYDE Kings is the Play Off Semi Final 2nd Leg against Mildenhall at Central Park Stadium on Monday (1/10), the homesters needing to overturn a 32 point deficit. The action gets underway, as always at 6:30pm
Eastbourne Eagles 52 1 G Wood R 3 3 3 2’ 11+1 2 J Edwards 2 1 2 2’ 7+1 3. M Baseby 2 FX 2 3 7 4. C Powell 1’ 1 1’ 2’ 5+3 5. T Brennan 2 2 2 3 0 9 6. E Spiller 2’ 1’ 1’ 3 7+3 7. C Brooks 3 1’ 1’ 1 6+2
Kent SLYDE Kings 38 D Kemp 3 3 3 1 2 12 A Rowe 1 2’ 3 0 6+1 N Stoneman 3 3 0 2 8 T Hampshire 0 0 1 0 1 J Thomas 3 2 3 0 1’ 9 J Couzins FX 0 0 0 A Spooner 1 0 0 0 1 2
