Kent CTA Fire Kings’ Ben Morley put up a brilliant performance at the annual National League Riders Speedway Championship on Sunday (28/9) at Rye House – finishing in third place and being the only rider on the afternoon to head home the eventual champion, Mildenhall’s Dan Halsey.
That win against Halsey came in Morley’s opening ride in heat 3 when the two former Rye House team mates went head to head on their one-time home track. As the two riders in the 16 rider field with the most experience of the sometimes tricky circuit, both Morley and Halsey had gone into the meeting aware that they would be regarded as highly dangerous opponents and trailing in their wake in the opening salvo was another former Rye House based racer, Ben Hopwood. For the CTA Fire Kings’ own Ben though, it was a best possible winning start raising immediately the hopes of a very large contingent of Kent supporters among the crowd at the circuit in Hoddesdon, Herts that this third NLRC in a row for Morley could prove to be the lucky one.
Ben’s next outing saw him pitched against a pairing from the club the Central Park-based Kings are taking on in their current two legged National League Play-off semi-final, the Coventry Storm. The controversial James Sarjeant (who faces a Speedway Control Bureau investigation into a controversial incident in the Storm’s last meeting, a match vs. Cradley) was keen to make amends after a pointless race in the preceding heat when he had fallen. The other Coventry rider was a Greenwood – but not the reigning GB Under 19s champ, Oliver who’d been many people’s ante-post favourite. Ollie, who rides also for Rye House in the Premier League, had suffered a nasty leg injury in that eventful match with Cradley at the Storm’s home track on Friday and was therefore ruled out of the NLRC, with his place going to his namesake (though no relation), Daniel. The stand-in though, had taken over the other Greenwood’s mantle in impressive style in heat 1, seeing off the not insignificant challenge of the only two riders in the field who’d won this title before, Kent’s number one Benji Compton and Stoke’s Jon Armstrong. Heat 5 was indeed to be decisive ultimately for Morley, as both of his rivals from Coventry finished ahead of battling Ben – the Southend speedster held up for a crucial early part of the race having to extricate himself from a disappointing start and get past Buxton’s Tom Woolley before making chase. After two rides Ben was on four points with Greenwood, Halsey and Halsey’s Mildenhall team-mate Joe Jacobs on five and Cradley’s Steve Worrall the only rider unbeaten on six. As fate would have it all four of those riders ahead of Morley were to meet each other in heat 9: Halsey coming out on top from Jacobs with Worrall losing the lead by only talking a solitary point and Greenwood ducking out of contention.
It was vital that Ben won his next two rides to keep in contention and he duly obliged: defeating Cradley’s Max Clegg in heat 11 (with team mate Compton falling when at the back) and then crucially seeing off the lively Jacobs in heat 16. So going into the last stanza of four races, Halsey, who’d remained unbeaten since that early reverse at the hands of Morley, led on 11 points with Morley and Worrall on 10 and Jacobs just behind on 9.
Heat 18 was Ben’s date with destiny: pitching the CTA Fire Kings’ man up against Worrall with the line up completed by the hugely experienced pairing of Armstrong and another former Rye House man in King’s Lynn’s James Cockle. The tension was stretched to near breaking-point as Cockle jumped the start and all four got pulled back. The second time of asking saw the super-fast Worrall storm ahead and try as he did, Ben could find no way back. The die was cast – Worrall’s three points to Morley’s two meant Ben had finished one point adrift of the Cradley man. It was now a case of hoping Jacobs and Halsey could slip up and allow Morley the silver medal. Jacobs was first into action seeing off the now fading Sarjeant – meaning the Mildenhall man had finished tied on 12 with Morley.
The final heat saw Halsey needing to win to pip Worrall to the title. Second would mean a run off for the title; third would give the championship to Worrall; but mean a three way run off for second for Halsey with team mate Jacobs and Morley. Sent into the Lion’s Den alongside Daniel was a determined Clegg – keen to wreck the Mildenhall skipper’s chances for the sake of his own team-mate, Worrall. All the intense rivalry between these two giants of the NL emerged to the surface in a dramatic and stormy battle: Clegg made the start but Halsey took him on the backstraight on lap one; Clegg fought tigerishly to regain the head, trying an audacious ‘dive-bomb’ on the last bend of lap two – but Halsey was having none of it and slammed the door shut. It was a fair block but the teenaged Cradley man took exception to it and sadly gave up the fight. Halsey’s triumphant laps to glory being marred by his petulant rival seeming to gesticulate to the referee his displeasure at what he clearly regarded as a decision ducked. Quite what the consequences might be for Clegg if this too is looked at by the SCB will be another thing to look out for in the days to come - but for now there was the not insignificant matter (well certainly not for the assembled ranks of Kent CTA Fire Kings’ fans) of Morley’s run off with Jacobs for that final place on the rostrum. The race was a classic. The Mildenhall man made the gate but Ben battled incessantly to keep up with him and challenged on every bend. The dogged persistence paid off on the second bend of the final lap when, to a huge roar from his many fans, Ben stormed through forcing Jacobs wide.
The third place was a great reward for a brilliant display from the Kent loyalist. More concerning was Compton’s peripheral performance – finishing pointless, with two falls and a premature withdrawal due to illness. With Friday’s vital second leg of the Play Off semi looming (without question the most important match in the Sittingbourne-based club’s history) there is obviously current concern as to Benji’s fitness for that meeting.
Dan Halsey 14, Steve Worrall 13, Ben Morley 12 (after run-off), Joe Jacobs 12, Jon Armstrong 9, Dan Greenwood 8, James Cockle 7, Marc Owen 7, Paul Starke 6, Max Clegg 6, James Sarjeant 6, Luke Chessell 6, Ben Hopwood 5, Tom Woolley 3, Danno Verge (res) 3, Arron Mogridge 2, Benji Compton 0.
