An incredible performance in the Scottish capital by the Kent TouchTec Kings saw the team go so close to victory, securing their second away draw of this SGB Championship [SGBC] season.
Leading by four points going into the final heat brought a first ever away win the SGBC tantalisingly close, but in the end a 5-1 from the hosts pairing of Sam Masters and Josh Pickering right at the death meant the long-travelling Kent heroes had to settle for the precious two match points awarded for an away draw.
Ten heat wins by Kent riders with six of the team recording at least one full or paid race win says it all about such an incredible team performance – the match may have been contested under heavy clouds and the threat of rain but there’s only sunshine in the Kent camp about the huge improvement across this team in recent weeks.
There was little indication of the outcome to follow from the opening three heats, all won by home riders as the Monarchs took an early four points lead – but to think that in the next TEN heats Kings riders were to provide the first man past the chequered flag was certainly the story of this match.
The run began with skipper Scott Nicholls taking the first of four wins in his four programmed rides in heat four and then the TouchTec Kings’ number one Troy Batchelor came to the party with victory in the following race.
A brilliant pass by Nicholls in heat 6 was the precursor for Cameron Heeps taking victory in a truncated heat seven, There was drama behind the Aussie, outstanding for the Kings on the return to his old home track, with team mate Paul Starke falling only then for Pickering to follow suit causing the race to be stopped with both fallers pointless.
That meant the deficit for the visitors was three points and the perfect cue for Ben Morley and Dan Gilkes to step up heroes with an incredible 5-1 in the always pivotal heat eight putting the TouchTec Kings into a lead they were to hold until the final heat.
That lead was pushed out to three when Heeps and Starke combined for a 4-2 in heat 10 and then up to four when another 3-2 of the match transpired after Morley was a second Kings man excluded for not being under power when Pickering fell again.
Three shared heats followed: Starke from third to first in the next race and then Nicholls getting the better of Australian Champion Masters again in heat 13 and Gilkes & Heeps made sure in the penultimate race that the visitors gave themselves the best possible chance of a history-making away win by taking a four points lead into heat 15.
But it as sadly not to be. For a third consecutive match their opponents delivered a maximum in the final race and unlike the previous occasions this one, with Nicholls falling in his Herculean efforts to catch the fast trapping Monarchs’ pairing entering the final lap, affected the final result.
The TouchTec Kings and their large and loud travelling contingent of fans move onto Berwick, just a stone out of Hadrian’s Wall over the border tomorrow looking for another outstanding performance.
