The curtain came down on Kent Speedway’s second season on a night of high excitement at Central Park on Friday (17/10), with a large crowd enjoying some terrific racing and a very close encounter of the local derby kind!
That the side from just over the river, the Arena Essex Hammers triumphed by just three points to wrest away the Tunnel Trophy from the home club was largely academic, because Speedway itself was the winner on the night – with numerous heroes due plaudits: from those who worked ceaselessly all week to get a circuit hit by deluge after deluge of rain into brilliant condition, to those dirt track gladiators in both teams who delivered such excellent entertainment on the racing strip. The overall result was that the Kent fans home were sent away for a long winter full of continuing enthusiasm for this tremendously successful Central Park venture and craving more of the same in 2015.
Certainly if 2015 does bring the Young Hammers side based at Lakeside in Thurrock into the National League fold, then no-one’s going to be complaining if matches like this one are repeated. The CTA Fire-backed Kings went into their defence of the Tunnel Trophy (an event which dates back to the mid-‘70s and contested between sides from Kent and those on the other side of the Thames) missing two key men from the squad, which has finished third in this year’s NL. Benji Compton has suffered a late season shoulder injury prematurely ending his 2014 campaign; whilst vice-captain David Mason is still feeling the affects of his nasty tumble in the CTA Fire Kings’ last outing: the second leg of the Play Off semi on a very testing circuit up in Coventry. Also absent was Jason Garrad – the rookie reserve unable to make this final meeting of a rather mixed first season in the sport for the Oxfordshire-based convertee from Moto-cross.
Faced with gaps to fill, team boss John Sampford made what seemed to be a good call in calling upon Stoke Potters pairing Jon Armstrong and Chris Widman to come in as ‘guests’: considering Stoke were the only away side to win twice at Central Park all year and on those occasions both Armstrong & Widman had contributing so decisively to their side’s point scoring, few would’ve anticipated the two Potters leaving Sittingbourne on Friday night at the end of proceedings basically potless! Just one point delivered from two guests must have made Mr. Sampford grateful that this was just an end of season friendly! To be fair it was mechanical mishap more than anything which curtailed the two substitutes’ scoring: Widman shedding a chain when leading heat two and never really getting going again after that; and the veteran Armstrong blowing an engine in his third ride and having to miss out on a further programmed outing before struggling on borrowed machinery to complete the meeting.
The visitors meanwhile had assembled a very impressive line-up led by the Lakeside club assets Marc Owen and Jack Kingston – two of the most accomplished and popular visiting riders to have appeared at Central Park this term. The two Lukes, Messrs Chessell and Harris were also useful and poignant picks too for the Young Hammers: two riders who’d given early-season sterling service to the CTA Fire Kings. As a number one, the Arena Essex Team manager, Neil Vatcher used his invaluable contacts from his role as Young GB’s co-boss by bringing in another track expert (unbeaten indeed on previous outings around the Central Park circuit), twice GB U-19s champ Stefan Nielsen.
And Nielsen proved a trump card reeling off four unchallenged wins to place his side for the night into a winning position before that streak came to an end with an almighty bump in the final race of the night! There was many an exciting battle before that though, starting in an eventful heat two (after the Anglo-Dane Nielsen had stormed majestically to a first race win). The Reserves Race was high quality and was led initially by Widman but when he slowed dramatically courtesy of a snapped primary chain, Harris had nowhere to go and ploughed into the back of the Kings’ number six.
The rerun was to be the first of several hugely exciting clashes between the home side’s favourite Danny Ayres and Kingston – the young Dagenham-born racer who is a Lakeside club asset winning out this time.
Many long time fans of the sport in the county were relishing the clashes between the two Baseby brothers – with Sevenoaks-based Aaron’s elder sibling Mark (once a star down the road at Iwade with the Sittingbourne Crusaders) back in action for the Hammers; and they weren’t disappointed in heat three: with the CTA Fire Kings man being held off by his battling brother before crashing out.
With Kingston winning out over Ayres again and then a second consecutive maximum 5-1 courtesy of Nielsen and a very determined Chessell (taking the not insignificant scalp of home star Ben Morley), suddenly it was a ten point gap the home side faced. Time to throw in the tactical ‘joker’ of a double points ride and skipper Simon Lambert did not disappoint beating the always lively Owen to half the deficit.
Heat 7 was a classic with the Hammers’ James Cockle engaged in close contact for four laps with the fence-scraping Ayres and Armstrong and Baseby senior not far behind either. One could’ve thrown the proverbial blanket over the four finishers at the line, with Cockle prevailing. No-one needed a blanket in the crowd though with action like this to keep them warm!
Ayres finally got the heat win his Herculean efforts deserved in the next race – revenging those earlier reverses by Kingston and then when Lambert and Aaron Baseby got a 5-1 for the homesters two races later, suddenly the gap was down to a solitary point with five races remaining.
Sadly though that was to be as close as matters got as heat wins from the imperious Nielsen twice and Kingston (reasserting the bragging rights over Ayres) pushed the Hammers into a match-winning position. Time just for two rather unsatisfactory races to bring the curtain down on the home Central Park campaign. Ayres was leading Kingston in heat 14 when the former Kings man locked up causing his team mate Mark Baseby to lay down his machine to avoid a crash. The skill and quick action of Baseby got zero reward though, as he found himself excluded as the race was stopped with no punishment to Kingston despite the incident clearly being the high-scoring Hammers reserve’s fault and a win was awarded to the Kings’ Rider of the Year-in-waiting, Ayres.
Heat 15 was destined also not to be finished – Nielsen for once having to chase after being out-gated, looped up unaccountably and alarmingly on the home straight entering lap two in pursuit of Morley. An enormous gasp around the stadium expressed the corporate concern for this popular lad just back from long term injury; to the relief of all he rose battered and bruised but otherwise unscathed. The referee had perhaps rather prematurely already called the result of this one, denying the crowd a rerun and cementing a final score of 48-45 in favour of the visitors who were jubilant in receiving the Tunnel Trophy from the presentation party of the Cearns family.
KENT 45: Simon Lambert 14, Danny Ayres 14, Ben Morley 11+1, Aaron Baseby 5+2, Jon Armstrong 1+1, Chris Widman 0, David Mason r/r
ARENA ESSEX 48: Stefan Nielsen 12, Jack Kingston 12, Marc Owen 10+1, James Cockle 6, Luke Chessell 4+2, Mark Baseby 2+1, Luke Harris 2