An absolute thriller of a Speedway match – this had it all: an extraordinary comeback from what looked like certain defeat; an imperious maximum from Drew Kemp; some superb racing; and after 30 heats over two legs an amazing denouement.
The upshot was an inaugural Inter-County Challenge trophy win over Swindon Sprockets for the Kent TouchTec Kings and that seemed almost incidental as both sides took a deserved joint-victory parade because Speedway was the true winner of this one.
Hit by injury absences and then having their woes compounded when two of their septet were caught the wrong side of the Medway Services by an M2 lorry fire, the Kings somehow summoned up reserves of resilience to come back from an eight points aggregate deficit after heat eight and still needing to pull back a half dozen points with just four heats left, to take a three points win on the night [46-43] and so take the tie on aggregate by 90-88.
The traffic chaos all around Sittingbourne added addition concerns at the outset with the unlucky Alex Spooner (who had actually missed the first leg when his own van broke down a not dissimilar distance from the track in Swindon) and the intended to be returning hero Luke Bowen stuck as a lorry blaze brought the M2 to a total halt. Spooner did make it by the half way point of the meeting but Bowen suffered Detling diversion despair and an agonising decision was needed to be made to put his programmed rides out to Rider Replacement. The first of these pitched Kemp against his normal team mate Anders Rowe (an opposing rider this time, captaining his home town club) in a thriller of a race in heat four. The Kent number one held Rowe at bay as he did when they met again in heat 10, when Anders even had the audacity to lead Kemp briefly before the GB U21 World Cup rider picked him off on the way to a truly awesome full house, six ride maximum.
Skipper Rob Ledwith was leading from the front also, dropping just one point from five rides to Rowe in heat seven. A 5-1 to the all-star Sprockets in the next race seemed to put the tie beyond the under-strength Kings but a purple patch by ‘Guest’ Jason Edwards, with three heat wins in races 9, 12 & 14 was instrumental in launching the comeback. As was the endeavour of teenaged stand-in reserve Jake Mulford whose passing manoeuvre to get the better of the highly-rated Dan Thompson in heat 12 was for many the ride of the night. A four points return for the rookie for whom this was only a second ever senior Speedway meeting had the knowledgeable Central Park cooing again.
That cooing turned to delirium when Kemp & Ledwith combined for a maximum of their own in heat 13 to level the scores on aggregate and then Edwards and Mulford reprised their 4-2 to put Kent ahead for the first time since the opening two heats back in the first leg the Sunday before last. Kemp was nerveless to take the match and tie clinching win in heat 15 - though there was more concern when Ledwith crashed painfully at the start of the first attempt of the final heat.
Team boss Chris Hunt was relieved that an unexpected run of consecutive defeats was ended in such spectacular style and understandably upbeat, “We’re getting riders back now – so things are looking good again. I’m just hoping that Rob is okay after that nasty final heat fall. Jordan [Jenkins] should we hope be back for the NL matches coming up – Friday away in the National League at Plymouth and next Monday (8th. July) home to the Isle Of Wight. And Dan [Gilkes], here cheering us on today and significantly off his crutches, is going to be back from his pelvic injury soon”.
Kent TouchTec Kings 46 (90) Drew Kemp 3 3 3 3 3 3 18 [M] Alex Spooner N 0 1 0 1 Rider Replacement - Luke Bowen Jason Edwards (G) 1 0 3 3 3 0 10 Rob Ledwith 3 3 2 3 2' 13+1 Jacob Clouting 0 0 0 0 0 Jake Mulford 1 0 1 1 1 4
Swindon Sprockets 43 (88) Danyon Hume 2 1' 1' 1 5+2 Jordan Palin 1' 2 3 2 1' 9+2 Anders Rowe 2 3 2 2 2 11 Richard Andrews 0 1 1' R 2+1 Luke Chessell XT R 0 0 Dan Thompson 3 2 2 2 0 9 Joe Thompson 2' 1' 2' 2 7+3
