The woes which have befallen the CTA Fire Kings on the road continued to bedevil the Kent Speedway side as they came face to face with a largely immoveable object in the form of reigning champions, the Cradley Heathens on Tuesday (27th. May).
The juggernaut that is this awesome outfit from the Black Country made it a black day for the side travelling up from the Garden of England; though a torrid sequence of seven consecutive 5-1s from heats nine to a final race which in the end couldn’t come quick enough for the hapless Kings’ sextet gave the final score a look which really contrasted with a far more competitive performance in the first half of proceedings.
Indeed it could have been rather different but for a slice of misfortune in the very opening heat when the race was stopped due to Heathens’ reserve Matt Williamson tumbling off. At the time of the stoppage, the Kent number one Simon Lambert was leading clearly but there was no such repeat performance in the rerun, with his opposite number in the West Mildlanders’ side Paul Starke storming to what ultimately was to be the first of five unbeaten by an opponent races for him and 15 heat winners out of 15 for the home side.
Despite not picking up any three pointers, the CTA Fire Kings side were holding a solid position in the match after the first five heats: a third way through and just six behind was a reasonable return for a side containing two riders who’d not ridden the Monmore Green circuit before and having to cope with the less than fruitful Rider Replacement facility for the missing Benji Compton. The margin went to 10 as the Heathens posted the first of what was in the end to be a catastrophic for Kent eight maximum 5-1 against them in heat six; and so out came Ben Morley in the black and white helmet colour in heat 7 to try and pull things back via the facility of double points as a Tactical Rider. Morley’s second place was ultimately to represent (via a 5-3) the only heat advantage of the evening but actually proved to be a swansong in terms of the Sittingbourne-based side, as then came that depressing denouncement to the meeting with the run of crushing maximums. There was time for one more shockingly bad bit of misfortune – Morley was leading the otherwise unbeaten Max Clegg in heat 12 and nailed on to finally beat the heat-winning duck for the visitors when his primary chain snapped – adding expensive injury to his bike to the insult of a thoroughly miserable evening in the West Midlands. The mood of the Kent camp was as dark as the clouds heavy over the traditionally dull Black Country.
Team Manager John Sampford summed it up, “Cradley are a very strong side – year on year, the Heathens management use their considerable resources to put together a championship challenging side and they’ve clearly got that sort of outfit this year. We were certainly unlucky not to record a single heat winner, as both Simon & Ben were in strong positions to get wins in those couple of races. That wouldn’t have been enough in the overall context of the match of course, but the final score didn’t really reflect the overall level of effort put in. The Rider Replacement facility isn’t really reaping us any benefits and we’ll be looking to make changes now rather than persist with something that’s not working for us”.
Ironically, the guest system which has worked better and will be needed for the missing Simon Lambert again on Monday (2nd. June) when the other front runners in the title race Coventry Storm visit Central Park saw Steven Worrall ride unbeaten for the Kings in a recent home meeting – at Cradley riding for his own club, the St. Helens’ born rider was imperious again winning all six rides for an 18 points return. As he put in, in a rather understated way, ““It was good tonight, I’ve got something that works quite well around here!” With Cradley nailed on to make the play offs, Kent will be hoping their own good home form will bring them back into contention to make a return visit to the Heathens’ Wolverhampton home in September to challenge Worrall and co again.
Cradley 65: Steve Worrall 18, Max Clegg 14+1, Paul Starke 13+2, Nathan Greaves 8+3, Matt Williamson 8+1, Danny Phillips 4+1, Tom Perry R/R
Kent 27: Simon Lambert 7, Ben Morley 6, David Mason 6, Luke Chessell 4+2, Luke Harris 3, Danny Ayres 1+1, Benji Compton R/R National League points: Cradley 3 Kent 0