Kent CTA Fire Kings had a real thorn in their side last night at Central Park Stadium in the shape of King's Lynn Young Stars youngster Lewis Rose who romped away with a meeting winning 16+2 score from seven rides to deny the home side a victory in their opening National league campaign going down by 9 points, 40-49.
Unlucky Kings Reserve Jack Kingston took a trip to hospital with reported concussion after sending orders out about his bike while in the ambulance! After a long wait in A and E he was sent for x-rays on his hand, which revealed a broken knuckle on his left hand wedding finger which has now been strapped to another finger and his arm in a cast to below the elbow. He has to wait for a CT scan as a precaution; as soon as we have the results we will issue a bulletin about Jack's condition.
This all came after a nasty crash through the first bend fence for the youngster after clipping Young Stars reserve Lewis Rose back wheel. Kingston was duly excluded from the re-run, while his reserve partner Adam Kirby also tumbled out of contention when under pressure from Chris Widman.
The visitors were 7 up at this point and never headed eventually eking out the lead to 9 points in the 13th heat. New signing Compton retired from heat 11 with his bike packing up while in second spot and a very frustrated Kings skipper Boxall blew another engine in heat 13. While young reserve Kirby had a full quota of seven rides and a 6+1 tally to his name.
Solid scores from Young Stars new signing Worrall and Mallett and the ‘Star' performance from Rose was enough for skipper Kerr to have an off night by his standards and still take the meeting points back to Norfolk.
With his best points return for the Kings 10+1, Ben Morley said, “After my first two rides I thought oh no I need to sort something out quick and make some decisions. We changed a few bits on the bike and it suddenly clicked. I had ridden twelve meetings on the engine which was pretty run down and just got it back from the tuner today. “
Morley is certain that consistency for the young side from top to bottom is key, “Once we all click we will be able to beat pretty much most teams in the league, the trouble is one week a couple of riders will click and the next week another two will click and we just need to get the consistency of all of us clicking together.†Said Morley who concluded, “I think we have a good chance against Buxton next Monday, Sam (Woods) is getting more and more speed, Connor (Coles) and Adam (Kirby) are both doing well. We are all slowly getting there and I think that Buxton will be a good stepping stone to start us off with a win.â€
KENT CTA FIRE KINGS 40 1. Steve Boxall (C) 2, 3, 3, R, = 8 2. Sam Woods 0, 1, 0, 0, = 1 3. Ben Morley 1', 0, 3, 3, 3, = 10+1 4. Connor Coles 2, 2, 1, 1, = 6 5. Benji Compton 3, 2, R, 2, 2', = 9+1 6. Adam Kirby FX, 1, 1', 2, 2, 0, 0, = 6+1 7. Jack Kingston FX, = 0 withdrawn Team manager: John Sampford
KING'S LYNN YOUNG STARS 49 1. Steven Worrall 3, 3, 3, XT, 0, = 9 2. Shane Waldron 1, 1, 1, 1, = 4 3. Darren Mallett 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, = 11 4. Shane Hazelden 0, 0, 2', = 2+1 5. Lewis Kerr (C) 2, FX, 2, 1, = 5 6. Chris Widman 2', 0, 0, = 2+1 7. Lewis Rose 3, N2, 2, 3, 1', 1', 3, 3, = 16+2 Team manager: Dale Allitt
REFEREE: Phil Griffin
GATE POSITIONS: Young Stars won the coin toss and took gates 2 and 4 in heat 1. Kings took gates 1 and 3 in heat 15.
