One of the best Speedway meetings ever staged at Central Park ended in a last heat decider and the result the Kent faithful wanted to see, with the SLYDE-backed Kings taking a hard-fought, breathtakingly-achieved victory.
But huge credit is also due to the Buxton Hitmen, who well and truly ditched their Cinderella tag to play as full a part as possible in this City Gearboxes National League [CGNL) encounter: a superb advert for the sport.
From the start to the end, the meeting was distinguished by everything a great Speedway meeting should contain: close, fought racing; some incredible passes; extraordinarily close finishes; two evenly-matched sides locked together; oh, and plenty of spills and controversy too. Bottle this one (or better still buy the DVD!) and the sport will have a long and happy future at Central Park!
The meeting began with the first of a number of amazing last gasp dashes to the line with the homesters’ Aaron Baseby somehow getting past Tom Woolley on the last bend and taking second behind his partner, Ben Morley. The main threat in this opening race (and destined to go on and top score for he Hitmen), Liam Carr had already written himself out of the action when at the first time of asking the lad from the Borders had rushed his chance to get past Baseby sending the Kent man to the canvas and earning the first exclusion of the night.
A maximum start then for the SLYDE Kings; and little at this stage to suggest that just four heats later the highly fancied home side would be a near catastrophic eleven points behind their visitors! A sequence of calamites began in heat two. The referee really appeared to hold the starting gate overlong and as a result Ben Basford (so fired up to show his former side what he can deliver) ploughed straight through the tapes. At the second time of asking (with Basford back off a 15 metres handicap, punishment for his indiscretion), Adam Sheppard made the hole-shot but Central Park first-timer David Holt for the Hitmen went close to getting around the Kent no. 6 on bend two and as Sheppard moved outside to block Holt’s advance the Buxton man went headlong straight through the safety fence wooden panelling. The decision to exclude the Kent rider seemed rather harsh - but it left the handicapped Basford in an invidious position: 1-5 to Buxton – all square at six each. Kent were in fact destined not to regain the match lead until heat 13!
Worst was to follow in heat three as the opening salvoes really began to take their toll on the track architecture (Danny Ayres wrecking the same section of boarded surround hammered by Holt in the previous heat) and the forbearance of the large summer holiday crowd. When Ayres went through the fence, his riding colleague in the famous Invicta race jacket Jamie Couzins had already packed up with engine failure. The result: a formality of a 5-0.
Heat four was the first of a sequence of simply unbelievable efforts by Kent’s teenaged sensation James Shanes – but not in victory in this case. Leading, the rider from Puddletown suddenly reared up and was a certainly to crash out but living up to his ‘Boy Wizard Of Balance’ tag somehow the young no. 5 held onto his bike and launched a breathtaking but ultimately unsuccessful pursuit of the veteran Buxton skipper, Tony Atkin. No matter Shanes’ heroics it was another heat advantage for an increasingly cock-a-hoop Buxton side. And that became ecstasy for the Hitmen, when Ayres and Couzins saw another maximum reverse suffered: Danny rearing up on bend two and taking out Carr. Excluded from the rerun, it was left to Couzins to attempt to split the now settled Carr and improved Tom Woolley and this he couldn’t do. Extraordinarily the home side found themselves 11 points behind after just five heats!
Cue the Kent team boss Chris Hunt implementing the Tactical Rider rule: with the skipper Morley selected to ride for possible double points. A win in the black and white helmet colour was secured and with the battling Baseby in third a 7-2 chopped off a significant part of the side from Derbyshire’s lead. The crowd were then treated to a classic race: pure James Shanes! The Dorset based teen missed the start completely and another 5-1 looked on for the runaway visitors. But Shanes reeled in Steve Jones and then having passed the former Scunthorpe man, wasted no time to taking on and passing Ryan Blacklock. When this happens and the high octane excitement it causes, Kent fans might perhaps get to secretly wishing their young starlet misses the start every race! Consecutive heat wins followed for Baseby (the master again of heat 8, bringing back memories of last term), Ayres and Morley. In the fourth of these four-in-a-row comeback race wins, Baseby repeated his heroics of heat one taking on Jones on the final bend and somehow stretching every sinew to get his bike over the chalk before his opponent. At last the scores were level again: 31 each after ten!
Buxton responded gamely: Hitman-ing back with a 4-2 in heat 11: Carr holding off even all that Shanes can uniquely deliver. Heat 12 and all level again: Ayres now looking fast and steady making up for his two earlier exclusions with a second straight win. Basford’s third after passing Holt showed the huge value of the one point contribution: locked level again at 37 point search. Heat 13 can be so pivotal in Speedway matches and so it proved – to the Kent SLYDE Kings’ benefit. Morley swept to a fourth untroubled win and this time Shanes gated almost as well – 5-1, no dramas: leading by four with two heats to go. Heat 14 was as unusual and dramatic a race as one could ever expect to see. Showing an admirable determination, which reflected on track, his his family’s efforts off track: overnight driving to South Wales and back to secure a new engine for their son’s continuing CGNL comeback, Adam Sheppard showed huge resolve and strength to get himself out in front; his team mate Basford was in second: a match clinching 5-1 was on the cards! But Basford began to slow and was passed by Jones. The slowing up could be explained the Teessider’s bike had a puncture.
Anyhow, entering the final bend Kent were on a 4-2 and the match was about to be clinched; by the time the dust had settled over the line just a few yards further on it was a match-saving 4-2 to the visitors. How did this happen? Well, Jones literally clattered into the leading Sheppard knocking him off balance and propelling the Hitman veteran into the lead. Most observers felt Jones should’ve been excluded for that; certainly Sheppard must be cursing his misfortune after two decisions went against him – both times when leading. Still, his second was vital to the team cause here; especially as Basford’s brave try of nursing home his machine failed at the death, with Holt getting level with him: the closeness of this finish surely merited a dead heat but seems CGNL refs don’t ever give decisions of that type.
And so into a last heat decider with Kent leading by just two points. A Morley win here would secure a second consecutive home maximum and take the match. But this time Liam Carr held the aces and finished his night with the notable scalps of both Morley & Shanes. No matter though – the SLYDE Kings duo tucked in for the minor placings, made it a shared 3-3 and ensured victory and a shunt two positions up the CGNL table back to fifth.
Next up at Central Park is the visit of Eastbourne Eagles in CGNL action on Monday 17th. August – tapes up at 6.30pm. The high flying Eagles have had their wings clipped a couple of times of late and Chris Hunt’s Kent charges lost down at Arlington by just ten points the weekend before last: the opportunity is there now to secure a first-ever win over their Sussex rivals.
Also next week will be the visit of Argentinean rider Micaela Bazan riding some demonstration races.
Match points: Kent 3 Buxton 1
KENT 47 B.Morley 3 6^ 3 3 2 - - 17 A.Baseby 2* 1 3 1 - - - 7+1 D.Ayres X X 3 3 - - - 6 J.Couzins X 1 X - - - - 1 J.Shanes 2 3 2 2* 1* - - 10+2 A.Sheppard X 0 2 - - - - 2 B.Basford 1 F 2* 0 1 0 - 4+1