It was a Saturday evening [13/7] up at Stoke for Kent TouchTec Kings’ challenge for the National League Fours [NL4s] title – but for Chris Hunt’s much fancied quartet it was more akin to a Friday the 13th. than a Saturday; either that or one of the team’s vans ran over a black cat driving into the pits – because the team had lots of luck on the night, the trouble is it was all bad…
It was a track which produced more than its fair share of spills (the deeper than usual dirt on the circuit catching out everyone bar the hosts at one time or another) – yet none of the other seven teams suffered any injury problems, yet Kent lost two riders to meeting withdrawals: skipper Rob Ledwith crashing out in his first ride and Anders Rowe suffering a horrific looking spill in the final heat of the semi.
It all started with considerable promise, Jordan Jenkins giving the massed ranks of Kings’ fans who’d journeyed up in such large numbers to the Potteries plenty of room for optimism by winning the opening heat of Kent’s group (Group ‘B’). It always looked on paper that the trickiest of any of the eight S/F races was Ledwith’s in heat two but sadly he wasn’t destined to find out how tough taking on Danny Ayres, Ben Wilson & Jordan Palin was going to be over four laps as he and Ayres had a significant coming together on the first bend and the Kent captain was taken off in the ambulance holding his shoulder ominously. The broken collar bone injury feared by all of course caused his withdrawal from proceedings and suddenly the back up of rookie Bailey Fellows at reserve had to be called upon. Fellows was in the always invidious position of brining Coal(ville) to Newcastle (Under-Lyme) and can’t surely have expected that in the end his relatively short journey for a first-ever senior competitive meeting was to lead to him being the busiest rider on display – taking two rides in the semi and a further three in the Final!
And it was two vital points for the 15-year-old in heat six (when firstly the hapless David Wallinger and then Danny Phillips both suffered exclusions after falls) which actually sealed the beleaguered Kent side’s place in the Final – Drew Kemp and Anders Rowe’s wins in their opening rides showing what promise a full Kings’ quartet could have achieved. Kemp was excluded himself in his second outing – a coming together with former Kings’ man Ayres now of Mildenhall, again – this time with Kemp deemed the transgressor.
So despite having two dot heats the patched the Kings had comfortably joined Mildenhall in the Final and all were weighing up how if Jenkins (who won his second ride too), Kemp and Rowe could repeat winning ways in the Final there could still be silverware to celebrate.
Those hopes came to a crushing and sickening halt in the final qualifying heat with Rowe picking up dirt and hurtling (along with Fen Tigers’ Jason Edwards) into and, in Anders’ case, through the wooden safety fence. How the new Kings’ number one got up from such a heavy crash no one could rightly fathom but machinery and equipment destroyed and wrist badly hurt it was ultimately to put paid to any lingering hopes of Kent victory. Meanwhile in the other group (Group ‘A’) the stand-out individual was another former Kings’ man, Ben Morley assisted by another in Danno Verge and Georgie Wood in getting the team of the moment in the NL, the Isle of Wight Warriors into the Final – but four points behind the hosts, Stoke. Always feeling they’d have an extra chance due to home track advantage, the Potters were certainly proving that theory right: skipper Tom Perry was sparkling and yet another former Kent favourite Connor Coles was in fiery form; Joe Lawlor got alarms ringing for the opposing Team Managers by joining Morley unbeaten in the Group and they really knew they had more than a prayer of victory, when veteran Luke Priest turned back the clock with some unexpected confident performances on the heavy circuit.
So to the Final and bravely, Rowe somehow came out for heat one but was badly hampered by his damaged wrist and had to withdraw ftom his second and Kent’s challenge was indeed over.
The other three sides battled themselves into an extraordinary conclusion: Mildenhall, Isle of Wight & Stoke amazingly tied on 12 points each going into the last heat. Coles set the pace but was surely going to succumb to the massive efforts of IOW’s Wood – but it was the normally rather meek and mild Coles who was a warrior out on track this time and somehow he held off all Wood’s efforts to get past; and even though few observers could genuinely separate them at the chequered flag it was the hosts who got the all-important verdict.
Kent co-promoter Len Silver summed up the feelings of all in the Kings’ camp at the disappointment of hopes dashed, “It was very quiet in the car on my journey the way home from Stoke and the Fours meeting. I imagine that, like the host of Kings fans present (the biggest contingent by visiting fans by far) we were all a bit shell-shocked by the alarming crashes to Rob and Anders.”
There was better news for Kent fans which the veteran administrator could bring though, “But Sunday morning the news became a bit better. Anders' wrist was not broken as suspected and he will be able to take his place in the team on Monday (vs, Cradley in the NL); while Rob has a broken collar bone, but NOT, as thought, a serious dislocation. He will be in great pain, as I know from personal experience how a busted collar bone feels, but, if there are no complications, it is an injury which normally has a fairly quick recovery time....let's pray that this is the case for the skipper. “In spite of losing our captain in his very first race of the semi-finals, we still made the final itself comfortably. But losing Anders in a horrific melee in the last heat of our semi clearly affected our morale and we had no chance in the Final with two riders missing. Hence the quiet drive home....”
Anders was himself reflecting on the enormity of his massive crash, “Well what can I say - apart from I know what a crash test dummy feels like! I completely wrote off my number one bike - had the straps cut out of my helmet - broken my neck brace -but I will be all good for Monday into a new challenge at no. 1 for Kent Kings - can’t wait for it. I am battered and bruised but no time to dwell on that as it’s been a busy day on Sunday in the workshop to fix everything ready for the match against Cradley tomorrow!”
Meeting scorers and results:
GROUP ‘B’ Plymouth Gladiators 8 1. Richard Andrews 1, 2 3 2. Ben Wilson 2, 3 5 3. Luke Chessell 0, 0 0 4. David Wallinger Fx, Fx 0 R. Adam Sheppard DNR
Belle Vue Colts 8 1. Connor Bailey 2, 1 3 2. Daniel Phillips Fx, Fx 0 3. Jordan Palin 1, 2 3 4. Kyle Bickley 2, R 2 R Ben Rathbone DNR
Kent TouchTec Kings 14 1. Drew Kemp 3, X 3 2. Anders Rowe 3, X 3 3. Jordan Jenkins 3, 3 6 [M] 4. Rob Ledwith Fell, Injured 0 R Bailey Fellows 0, 2 2
Mildenhall Fen Tigers 16 1. Danny Ayres 3, 3 6 2. Henry Atkins 1, 3 4 3. Matt Marson 1, 1 2 4. Jason Edwards 2, 2 4 R. Elliot Kelly DNR