The CTA Fire Kings suffered a second agonising National league defeat on the road last night at the hands of Coventry Storm, 59-33. The Kings now move onto Suffolk Sunday afternoon at 4.30pm to take on Mildenhall Fen Tigers in National Trophy action before returning to Central Park at 6.30pm Monday evening for The Tunnel Trophy against Rye House Raiders.
After a poor start to their season Storm seem to of turned the corner with a solid and impressive display around their own Brandon circuit. With a threat of late evening rain Joe Jacobs scorched to a 12 point return as did Robert Branford. They were ably backed up with 9+1 from Brendan Johnson while skipper James Sarjeant and very impressive Luke Crang in his first season scored 8+1 each.
In contrast misfortune fell again to the Kings with Mark Baldock failing to score and guest reserve Lee Geary covering for Jack Kingston managed a single point, Geary also steps into the breach at Mildenhall Sunday afternoon. Kirby unlucky in heat 2 falling while challenging Terry-Daley for the lead and in heat 4 fell while in 3rd place added two thirds for his hard earned evenings work.
Connor Coles started off looking uncomfortable and under power around the Brandon circuit but improved greatly as the evening progressed returning 3+1. Ben Morley on his first visit suffered a tapes infringement in his first ride taking the 15 metre handicap returned a solid 7 including a great tussle with Branford who lost his steel shoe on the second bend third lap in heat 12. While Benji Compton looked to be lacking speed all night no matter how hard he tried and weighed in with 6 points.
With a total of nine re-runs due to falls and starting offences it was left to skipper Steve Boxall to lead the way with a cracking display netting 14 points. A neck and neck race with Jacobs in heat 13 with no quarter given provided the Kings first heat advantage of the night! An inside 3rd turn blast saw the young Storm rider slide off and duly excluded from the re-run heat where Boxall made no mistake second time around. Jacobs though returned the favour pegging Boxall in 2nd in the last heat and had previously headed him home in the opening heat.
Just three race wins and one heat advantage for the Kings leaves team manager John Sampford the tough task to rallying his young team and pushing for improvement tomorrow afternoon.
Sundays Line-ups from: (National Trophy)
MILDENHALL: Stefan Nielsen, Aaron Baseby, Josh Bates, Jon Armstrong, Danny Halsey (C), Liam Rumsey, Nathan Stoneman, Team manager: Robert Henry
KENT CTA FIRE KINGS: Steve Boxall (C), Connor Coles, Adam Kirby, Benji Compton, Mark Baldock, Ben Morley, Lee Geary, Team manager: John Sampford
COVENTRY STORM 59 KENT CTA FIRE KINGS 33 (NL)
COVENTRY STORM 59 1. Joe Jacobs 3, 3, 3, FX, 3, = 12 2. Martin Knuckley 1, 2', 2', FX, = 5+2 3. Robert Branford 2', 3, 3, 3, 1, = 12+1 4. Brendan Johnson 3, 1, 2', 3, = 9+1 5. James Sarjeant (C) 1', 3, 2, 2, = 8+1 6. Ryan Terry-Daley (G) 3, 1, 1', 0, = 5+1 7. Luke Crang 2', 2, 3, 1, = 8+1 Team managers: Blayne Scroggins and Laurence Rogers
KENT CTA FIRE KINGS 33 1. Steve Boxall (C) 2, 4^, 3, 3, 2, = 14 2. Mark Baldock 0, 0, 0, N2, = 0 3. Ben Morley 1, 2, 2, 2, 0, = 7 4. Connor Coles 0, 0, 1', 2, = 3+1 5. Benji Compton 3, 1, 1^, 1, = 6 6. Lee Geary (G) 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, = 1 7. Adam Kirby FX, FX, 1, 1', = 2+1 Team manager: John Sampford REFEREE: Chris Gay
GATE POSITIONS: Storm won the coin toss and took gates 1 and 3 in heat 15. Kings took gates 1 and 3 in heat 1.
