The Kent CTA Fire Kings face a monumental task to stay in this year’s Speedway National League Knock-out Cup after going down to a ten points defeat at the hands of their nemeses the Stoke Potters.
The side from Staffordshire who have risen from the ignominy of the wooden spoon last term to being one of the consistently in-form outfits in the 2014 season had gone into the match at Central Park on Monday evening (23/6) as the only visiting team to taste victory at the Kent’s fortress home and they repeated the medicine with a first leg victory which CTS Fire Kings’ fans will find a very bitter pill to swallow.
Not least because one of the Potters’ heroes was the former Kings’ man, Adam Kirby – reprising only the best of his inconsistent career when a reserve for Kent, by winning one race and anchoring another 5-1 to finish with a creditable paid nine. Stoke have almost four heat leaders such is the strength of the main body of the side and their NL Pairs title winners Ben Wilson and Jon Armstrong showed the rich vein of form they are in by both recording paid double figures scores; Lee Payne won two heats also and Ben Hopwood again showed his liking for the Central Park circuit.
No such familiarity with the nuances of a particularly slick track for the home side’s debutant Jason Garrad. Highly rated by the Kings’ management, Garrad struggled to make an impression and will need to chalk this one (to be fair the first time he had ridden the circuit) down to experience. Fellow reserve Danny Ayres struggled manfully as ever, but found the going tough. At the end of the day, 10 race winners out of 15 with seven of those races delivering race points advantages proved Stoke worthy winners – though there was a dose of good fortune and controversy associated with some early decisions going their way.
In both heats 4 and a three-times rerun heat 8 the referee seemed very lenient on the returning Adam Kirby. As Kent team boss John Sampford put it,
“I felt the exclusion of Aaron Baseby from Heat 8 was a poor decision when it was obvious to me that Adam Kirby turned left on him as they came out of the second bend but the referee didn’t see it that way. We did have heated words over it, after what had happened in Heat 4 when Kirby had lifted off the inside and wiped the other three riders out only for all four to be put back in. You can only push things so far as a Team Manager though and in the end we have to accept the decisions that were made, as frustrating as it is.”
Going into that long drawn out heat 8, the home side actually held a narrow lead (22-20) after a superb piece of team riding again by David Mason and the ever-improving Luke Chessell had delivered a 5-1 in the third heat. But with Baseby controversially disqualified from taking part in the rerun and Kirby (perhaps lucky not to be the rider sitting it out as excluded) partnering Chris Widman to hold off all the determined entreaties of Ayres to get through it was a maximum this time to Stoke which turned the balance of the meeting their way and gave them a lead they never relinquished.
It was last chance saloon time in heat 13 and a generally rather out of sorts Ben Morley and the skipper Simon Lambert rose to the challenge to grab a 5-1 inflicting an only defeat of the meeting on the oh-so impressive Wilson. However Payne held of the close attentions of Chessell and Ayres in the next race to dash all hopes of an unlikely comeback and suddenly the margin the CTA Fire Kings need to overturn in the second leg next month had lurched into the extremely uncomfortable region of double figures: Wilson and Armstrong getting full revenge on the CTA Fire Kings’ main duo in heat 15.
KENT 40: Simon Lambert 12, David Mason 7+2, Ben Morley 7+1, Luke Chessell 7, Danny Ayres 4+1, Aaron Baseby 3+1, Jason Garrad 0.
STOKE 50: Ben Wilson 13, Jon Armstrong 9+1, Ben Hopwood 8+1, Adam Kirby 7+2, Lee Payne 7+1, Chris Widman 5, Rob Shuttleworth 1.
Next Monday (30/6) it’s back to National League action with the CTA Fire Kings aiming to dispense with the threat of fellow play-off position contenders, the King’s Lynn Young Stars. The Young Stars’ skipper Darren Mallett comes to Central Park as holder of the Bronze Helmet so for the first time this campaign, home fans will be able to see a contest for the famous match-race championship title. Tapes are up at 6.30pm.
