On a night which will sadly remain long in the memory for all the wrong reasons. Kent tumbled to defeat in the second leg of the Silver Ski Holidays Fours at Plymouth on Friday night (26/9).
Sadly, it was the track rather than the riders making all the headlines at the renamed this year ‘Plymouth Coliseum’ with the early heats distinguished by the sort of carnage which might not have been out of place if served up in front of Roman Masters in the amphitheatre of old. It was indeed the opening quarter of this meeting which sealed the fate of both Kent teams (the TouchTec Kings and the ‘second side select’, the Breem Construction Stars) and ensured the Devon side go into the final leg at Central Park on Monday week 95/8) in the ascendancy - the Isle of Wight Warriors finishing second for the second evening running.
There were clear concerns among riders from all four teams prior to the commencement of racing with tonnes of a new track surface material of sharp sand leading to extremely heavy conditions and so it proved when the normally immaculate Ben Morley (maximum man the evening before at the IOW) locked up badly on the third lap to led his captaining counterpart in the Gladiators side Richard Andrews the rare opportunity to go past him and take the chequered flag. A home rider taking three points was, incredibly, then to be repeated 12 times in the next 15 heats as a totally dominant Plymouth quartet set what is surely a record score in a club four team tournament as this level. Only Morley (with two wins) and his IOW colleague on the night, Jordan Palin managed to break the stranglehold on the points by the Gladiators for who Richard Andrews and the resurgent David Wallinger recorded maximums.
For the TouchTec Kings and the BC Stars it was a night of misery. Heat three was horribly both decisive and divisive. At the first time of asking both Danno Verge and Kent’s Dan Gilkes were fallers in separate incidents but were back into the rerun. In the second staging Luke Bowen, on the comeback trail in this tournament, fell when leading hurting his ankle with Gilkes also down. The award of two points was to be Gilkes’ only contribution as he had to withdraw with a badly sprained wrist – thankfully no worse. For Bowen it was a final straw. As he put it when commenting later on social media, “I have respect for every rider that I line up against on that start line, so when the track caught me out, enough was enough for me as rider safety is paramount.” The former Kings’ captain and club legend then went on to announce his retirement from the sport with immediate effect – having withdrawn from the proceedings in a situation he personally found untenable on the evening.
For another returning former Kings number one and skipper a similar tale was to be told down in Devon – with Jack Thomas excluded for missing the two minutes in heat four and withdrawing after a lengthy on track meeting between riders and the on-duty trainee referee didn’t resolve the concerns over the track. Down to two men, the TouchTec Kings finished third on 14 points; with the BC Stars five further points behind. The select side were depleted from the off with Nathan Ablitt who’d withdrawn unwell the night before after two rides unable to take his place and when Danyon Hume (replacing Paul Hurry) was also twice a faller in the torrid opening half of the meeting there was precious opportunity for John Sampford’s charges to get back into contention after fourth place on the IOW on the Thursday.
Plymouth Gladiators 44 Ben Wilson 3, 2, 3, 3 11 Adam Extance 3, 2, 3, 1 9 David Wallinger 3, 3, 3, 3 12 [M] Richard Andrews 3, 3, 3, 3 12 [M]
Kent TouchTec Kings 14 Anders Rowe 0, 2, 2, 2 6 Jordan Jenkins 2, 2, 2, 0 6 Jack Thomas X2M, NS, NS, NS 0 Dan Gilkes - 2, withdrawn – injured 2
