A truly heroic effort by all in the Invicta race jacket saw the Kent Iwade Garage Royals keep their National League [NL] title hopes on track securing a valuable bonus point when going down 47-43 at Armadale in West Lothian, Scotland on Friday (17/9) evening.
Without all three of their heat leaders, beleaguered Royals’ team boss John Sampford brought in Ryan Terry Daley as one stop gap replacement and the Kiwi scored paid ten, as did ‘Guest rider’ Connor Coles; but the headlines belong to teenager Vinnie Foord who stole the hearts of the Edinburgh crowd with as brave and exciting a showing as any 15 year old could deliver and most especially by Alex Spooner who produced a career best ever performance, scoring a man of the match paid 16 as the magnificent Royals took the Devils to a last heat decider.
The match started with an unfortunate 1-5 reverse for the visitors and that really threatened a long night for the Royals under heavy rain laden clouds. But the gloom lifted courtesy of the ray of sunshine that is teen Foord whom stormed to a terrific heat two win – his racing partner Josh Warren being an unfortunate faller as the rain came down, Conditions were worsening but the Royals were adapting well with two race wins by the on fire Spooner leading the way to reduce the deficit to two points by heat six, Better still followed in heat seven, as the rains abated, with Terry-Daley beating the Scots’ experienced Danny Phillips and the plucky Jacob Clouting taking third to level matters; and a win by Coles in heat eight meant that at the de facto half way point it was 24-24.
A word about Josh Warren whose three rides had produced no points but had shown great spirit in battling so hard without ultimate success. Taking of success, Spooner recorded an exceptional third win of the night beating the up to that point also unbeaten Tom Wooley in heat nine and with Foord in third, the visitors had completed the turnaround and were in front.
Ultimately it was the following heat which turned the match just in favour of the hosts. By now the rains had gone but it was a perfect storm as far as the Devils were concerned, when Woolley and Gregor Millar pulled out a maximum in heat 10 to put the hosts back into a lead they were destined to hold onto.
Spooner’s winning run came to an end in heat 11 and again he could only manage second in heat 13 but three consecutive 3-3s kept the margin to just two with two heats remaining,. Foord had brought the house down passing the other Millar brother, Lewis in heat 12; and was up for performing similar heroics in the penultimate race only to fall attempting a now fast becoming trademark blast around the boards. Sadly this time the resultant stoppage saw Foord excluded, but Clouting kept the Royals in the match by passing Lewis Millar in the rerun to take second behind race winner George Rothery, the young Cumbrian up to this stage having suffered a torrid time with his machinery and being pointless.
So to the now extremely familiar to this Kent Speedway season last heat decider, with Spooner and Terry-Daley charged with getting the 5-1 needed to repeat what the senior Kings’ side had achieved at Edinburgh three weeks earlier, draw on the night. Sadly not on this occasion, though Alex completed a brilliant evening with a fourth heat win over Phillips and Woolley.
So the Royals now move onto eight points from four away matches with one more away and all five home matches to go - and all in all, it promises to be a very exciting set of matches at Central Park in late September and throughout October as that elusive NL title is chased down.
Armadale Devils 47 Nathan Greaves - Rider Replacement Gregor Millar 2', 2, 2, 2', 0 = 8+2 Tom Woolley 3, 3, 2, 3, 3, 1' = 15+1 George Rothery 0, M, M, R, 3 = 3 Danny Phillips 3, 2, 2, 3, 3, 2 = 15 Gavin Parr 1', 0, 0, 0 = 1+1 Lewis Millar 2, 1', 0, 1', 0, 1 = 5+2
Kent Iwade Garage Royals 43 Connor Coles (G) 1, 1', 3, 2, 1' = 8+2 Ryan Kinsley - Rider Replacement Ryan Terry-Daley 1', 2, 3, 1, 2, 0 = 9+1 Jacob Clouting 0, 2, 1, 0, 2 = 5 Alex Spooner 3, 3, 3, 1', 2, 3 = 15+1 Vinnie Foord 3, 1, 1, 1', FX = 6+1 Josh Warren 0, 0, 0 = 0
