It was a case of history repeating itself for the Kent TouchTec Kings as their Play Off hoodoo of the past four seasons struck again, with a damaging first leg defeat away at Leicester on Wednesday night (16/10).
Trailing after the opening stanza of this Grand Final by a damaging 28 points after the 59-31 defeat, puts Chris Hunt’s charges right up against the wall with a massive task awaiting them in the second leg at Central Park next Monday (October 21st.).
Taking on the side with the best home record in any of the country’s three divisions on their fortress Beaumont Park circuit was always going to require a night of complete focus from the visitors with minimal mistakes or points given away from scoring positions - but sadly an early blow seemed to knock the Kings’ confidence and the first leg (and potentially the tie) was swept away from them almost before they could get going.
It started well enough with Jordan Jenkins giving the peerless Ellis Perks a good initial scrap for honours before the Aussie-raised Perks (who uniquely stands on the brink now of Grand Final title success in all three leagues) pulled well away. Jenkins was then passed by team mate Anders Rowe in a manoeuvre which served only potentially to compromise the position of the two Kings men ahead of the trailing Dan Thompson – but no matter, a shared heat (very much needing to be the order of the day) was secured.
Another looked nailed on in heat two with rookie Jake Mulford well clear of the Lion Cubs’ reserve pairing and set fair to win his first senior competitive ride on the tricky Leicester circuit – cue the misfortune the massed ranks of travelling Kings’ fans were dreading, as the teenaged Mulford went fractionally too wide on the final bend of lap three, making contact with the air fence and going down. The awarded 5-1 set the hosts into a lead they were savagely to build upon.
Not dissimilar misfortune was repeated in heat eight with Jenkins this time giving the fast Joe Thompson a run for his money and in second before he fell in front of the trailing Ryan Terry-Daley – again the award was a maximum to the visitors who now led by a certainly not sweet 16..
With the awesome pairing of Perks and fellow maximum man Danyon Hume to come out as a duo three times in the remaining seven heats (three 5-1s of course followed from them), it was clearly now a hiding to nothing faced by the visitors. Drew Kemp recorded a first heat win for the Kings in heat nine but was powerless alongside number one Rowe to arrest the tide of Perks & Hume’s super fast scoring. The only glimmer of light for the beleaguered Kings came in the penultimate race (heat 14) with Rob Ledwith (who has been unlucky not to score more, putting in an impressive stint in this a first ever trip to the East Midlands venue) and the ever-plucky Mulford combining for a 5-1 of their own. That at least meant that the visitors could no longer suffer the potential ignominy of conceding 60 points - but the Lion Cubs roared again in heat 15 with the mandatory full house from Perks & Hume, meaning it’s a 28 points deficit Kent need to set about recovering in the second leg on Monday.
Hunt commented, "First and foremost I want to apologise to our fans - who again turned out in large numbers and they deserve a lot more than the performance the team put in. After all the adversity and setbacks we'd overcome over the National League season proper, to get to the biggest stage of all, the Grand Final and to put in a performance so far short of what was needed.., well, it's way beyond disappointing. "I have to make mention of Rob (Ledwith), Dan (Gilkes) and Jake (Mulford) who battled gamely and put their hearts and souls into it. Really we were beaten up by the track and the fact that some of their riders really excel on their home circuit. For some of those Lion Cubs riders it'll be a different story at Central Park on Monday I'm sure and it's up to us now to ensure that we raise our game and look to reverse that deficit sadly suffered up at Leicester".
The Second Leg is on Monday 21st. October at Central Park Stadium - gates at 5pm; tapes up at 6.30pm with the action on track followed by the End of Season goodbyes and a spectacular Grand Fireworks Display.
Leicester Lion Cubs 59 Ellis Perks 3, 3, 2*, 3, 3 14+1 [PM] Rider replacement - Luke Ruddick Joe Thompson 3, 2*, 3, 1*, 3 12+2 Dan Thompson 0, 0, 3, 2, FX 5 Danyon Hume 3, 3, 3, 3, 2*, 2* 16+2 [PM] Josh Embleton 3, R, 1, N 4 Ryan Terry-Daley 2*, 1, 1, 2*, 1, 1 8+2
Kent TouchTec Kings 31 Anders Rowe 2, 1, 2, 1 6 Jordan Jenkins 1*, 0, FX, 0 1+1 Dan Gilkes 1*, 2, 1, 2, 1 7+1 Rob Ledwith 2, 1*, 0, 3 6+1 Drew Kemp 2, 2, 3, 0, 0 7 Alex Spooner 1, 0, 0 1 Jake Mulford FX, 0, 1, 0, 2* 3+1
Heat details 1 Perks, Rowe, Jenkins, D. Thompson 62.10 [3-3] 2 (awarded) Embleton, Terry-Daley, Spooner. Mulford (fell) no time [8-4] 3 J. Thompson, Ledwith, Gilkes, D. Thompson 63.40 [11-7] 4 Hume, Kemp, Terry-Daley, Mulford 64.72 [15-9] 5 D. Thompson, J. Thompson, Rowe, Jenkins 65.35 [20-10] 6 Perks, Kemp, Terry-Daley, Spooner 63.31 [24-12] 7 Hume, Gilkes, Ledwith. Embleton (ret) 63.50 [ 27-15] 8 (awarded): J. Thompson, Terry-Daley, Mulford. Jenkins (FX) no time [32-16] 9 Kemp, D. Thompson, J. Thompson, Spooner 64.66 [35-19] 10 Hume, Perks, Gilkes, Ledwith 63.28 [40-20] 11 Hume, Rowe, Embleton, Jenkins 64.10 [44-22] 12: J. Thompson, Gilkes, Terry-Daley, Mulford 63.47 [48-24] 13 Perks, Hume, Rowe, Kemp 63.12 [53-25] 14 (rerun) Ledwith, Mulford, Terry-Daley. D. Thompson (FX), Embleton (injured NS) 67.29 [54-30] 15 Perks, Hume, Gilkes, Kemp 63.37 [59-31]
