History did repeat itself! Four years after Kent won the National Pairs & the triumphant Kings duo went on to take first and second in the division’s individual championship, the NLRC – Anders Rowe and Drew Kemp repeated the feat in a rain affected evening of drama up at Scunthorpe Speedway on Sunday (20/1
Pre-meeting many were predicting a victory for Leicester’s outstanding number one, Ellis Perks; with others fancying the in-form Belle Vue rider Leon Flint or perhaps his fellow former multi-Youth British champion, Kyle Bickley. And of course, having won the GB U19 crown earlier this year, Kings’ man Drew Kemp was many others’ pick. Less perhaps had fully assimilated the fact that Kemp’s teammate and that Pairs partner, Anders Rowe was another man in form – and so it proved to be, with the 17 year old who hails from Swindon becoming champion. The feat was all the greater having had former champion Max Clegg added late to the field. Kemp was declared second on count back after the premature halt to proceedings with Cradley’s 2016 winner Clegg taking the third place on the rostrum.
In fact, after 14 completed heats and with the North Lincs track fast flooding due to heavy rain and after Kemp’s third win of the evening he, Rowe & Clegg all stood level at the top of the leader board with 11 points: three wins and one second each from four riders. Perks had dropped two points at this stage, as had Flint - with others largely out of contention.
Heat 15 though showed that conditions had deteriorated to such an extent that racing couldn’t safely continue and the meeting was abandoned with the result declared at the point of the end of the last full ‘round’ of races – which was heat 12 and after all had completed three rides. Anders had won all his first three rides and so was declared champion – the third Kent Kings rider in seven seasons of the club to take the individual crown (following in the tyre tracks of Stevie Boxall in 2013 and Ben Morley, part of that Pairs/NLRC double in 2015).
Rowe had opened up with a convincing heat 4 win over the track reserve Tom Spencer (in for Plymouth’s Tom Young, who’d taken David Wallinger’s place in the meeting line up only never to get going into action at all) with former Kings’ rider Connor Coles in third.
Kemp had faced an altogether more challenging race in the previous heat, leading from GB U19 runner up Jason Edwards, until Flint came from last to overhaul the Kent rider and take the chequered flag. It was a reverse ultimately to prove costly for Drew.
Anders’ next ride pitched him against Bickley and a quick fire second victory showed he was going to be the man to beat. Drew meanwhile hit back after that dropped point to take victories in his next two rides: crucially beating Clegg in heat 7. Meanwhile Rowe made a trademark spectacular swoop past Belle Vue number one Jordan Palin & Edwards in heat 11 to ensure he remained unbeaten.
As it happened the races after heat 12 were destined not to ‘count’; but for the record it was Cradley’s Clegg ending Rowe’s unbeaten run in heat 13 and then Kemp took another heat win to draw level at the top with his team mate by winning heat 14.
It was set up perfectly for a heat 20 denouement with the two Kings’ riders meeting in that final scheduled heat along with – for rather more than good measure – reigning champion Morley and Perks. But conditions were very poor now and the rain showing no sign of relenting and when Palin, Jack Smith and Perks all fell in the following heat the referee had little choice but to call the meeting to a conclusion – going back to heat 12 to declare the result: to the delight of the Kent camp seeing their two men in first and second.
Scores [in rider draw order] 1. Ryan Kinsley (Mildenhall Fen Tigers) 2, 3, 1, [1] 7 [6] 2. Kyle Bickley (Belle Vue Colts) 3, 2, 1, [2] 8 [6] 3. Jordan Palin (Belle Vue Colts) 0, 1, 2 3 4. Ben Morley (Isle Of Wight Warriors) 1, 3, 2 6 5. Ellis Perks (Leicester Lion Cubs) 2, 2, 3 7 6. Joe Thompson (Leicester Lion Cubs) 1, 1, F 2 7. Max Clegg (Cradley Heathens) 3, 2, 3, [3] 11 [8] 8. Joe Lawlor (Stoke Potters) 0, 0, NS 0 9. Jason Edwards (Mildenhall Fen Tigers) 1, 1, 1 3 10. Danno Verge (Isle Of Wight Warriors) 0, R, 1 1 11. Drew Kemp (Kent TouchTec Kings) 2, 3, 3, [3] 11 [8] 12. Leon Flint (Belle Vue Colts) 3, 2, 2, [0] 7 13. Tom Young (Plymouth Gladiators) M, M, NS 0 14. Anders Rowe (Kent TouchTec Kings) 3, 3, 3, [2] 11 [9] 15. Connor Coles (Stoke Potters) 1, 1, 0 2 16. Jack Smith (Cradley Heathens) 0, 1, 2 3 Track Reserves: Tom Spencer 2, 0, [1] 3 [2] Sam Woods 0, F, [X] 0