The Kent SLYDE Kings slipped to another defeat at Central Park on Monday night (8/6) as the Stoke Potters won a close encounter in Speedway’s City Gearboxes National League (CGNL), 47-42.
It's now a run of three meetings since the Sittingbourne-based side tasted success, and with a tough match at Cradley on Wednesday night, Kent will be hoping quickly for a change in fortunes.
In heat one the SYYDE-backed Kings’ skipper and eventual top scorer, Ben Morley was headed home by the evergreen Jon Armstrong who rolled back the years with a tapes to flag victory. With Jamie Couzins looking off the pace in the opening ride, Chris Widman took third place to put Stoke into lead - a lead they would only relinquish once in the meeting.
An incident packed Heat five saw Danny Ayres miss the two minutes due to exhaust problems; he went off a 15m handicap. When the race did start Jon Armstrong again gated but was struck by an engine failure gifting the lead to a welcome recipient in Aaron Baseby. Danny Ayres was pressing Chris Widman for all four laps and went for a last gasp inside pass only to collect the Stoke rider causing both to fall and with Armstrong out of the race already, it was a 3-2 to Kent to make the scores 16-13 in favour to the Potters.
Heat six saw Jamie Couzins ride a very smart 4 laps to hold off Ryan MacDonald and with Ben Morley taking the chequered flag that was 4-2 to the SLYDE Kings to move them within one point of the visitors.
Heat 12 was as good as it got, though, for the home side:, Aaron Baseby, riding to an impressive third consecutive race win and Danno Verge riding hard for four laps, eventually passing the Potters’ Ryan Terry-Daley to give the Kings a 5-1 which changed the fortunes for the home side, moving them into a three point lead. It was the only time in the meeting that the Kings led. The hard work was however undone in the next race in which the Stoke pairing of Armstrong and Payne grabbed a 5-1 over Morley and Shanes, to put the visitors back into the lead by a point, and a shared Heat 14 set up a last heat decider with the visitors leading 42-41.
A dramatic and controversial Heat 15 saw the Potters gate - when Jon Armstrong appeared to lock up, Ben Morley took avoiding action and Aaron Baseby ran into the back of Morley. Aaron Baseby was judged to be the guilty party. In the re-run a repeat of Heat 13 happened with the Stoke pairing of Payne and Armstrong riding brilliantly to give Stoke the win and all three match points.
Kent 42 1. Ben Morley 2 2 3 3 1 10 2. Jamie Couzins 0 1 0 1 2 3. Aaron Baseby R 3 3 3 FX 9 4. Danny Ayres 3 X 1 3 7 5. James Shanes 2 3 3 0 8 6. Adam Sheppard R 0 0 0 7. Danno Verge 2 1' 1 2' 0 6+2
Stoke 47 1. Jon Armstrong 3 X 2 3 2' 10+1 2. Chris Widman 1 2 3 1' 7+1 3. Ryan Terry-Daley 1' 2 0 1 4+1 4. Danny Phillips 2 1' 2 2 7+1 5. Lee Payne 3 2 2 2' 3 12+1 6. Ryan MacDonald 3 0 0 F 3 7. Paul Burnett 1 0 2' 1' 4+2