Kent SLYDE Kings literally snatched defeat from the jaws of victory in what must rate as one of the most disappointing and controversial defeats in the club’s history - losing in a last heat decider to succumb to a numbing 45-44 defeat on Sunday (7/7) at Mildenhall.
13 points up after ten heats and so needing just nine more points from the remaining five races to claim the match victory in this Travel Plus National League [TPNL[] fixture, incredibly in an implosion which few even watching it live could believe was happening, that seemingly nailed on winning position was snatched away cruelly at the death. The crucial moment in the savage denouncement of a meeting ruined by shocking delays and a huge number of crashes was the loss to injury in a high- speed pile up of skipper Luke Bowen in heat 11. With resources horribly stretched already for the SLYDE Kings after losing Bowen’s namesake Luke Clifton in heat five, the last five heats will always live in the memory, even though all will pray they can forget them, of the large contingent of travelling Kent fans and a shell-shocked team.
The meeting started in less than satisfactory circumstances with the arriving riders discovering a circuit horribly unprepared after suffering the rigours of a car racing meet which had by all accounts gone on until nearly midnight on Saturday. A walk around the battered circuit by Bowen and his team mates found them discovering all kinds of metallic debris from the previous evening’s Banger Racing. Then it transpired that the ambulance hired to attend had broken down on route and at start time it was announced it could be half an hour before a replacement arrived. There was relief when ten minutes later it was announced all was good to go and all 13 riders (Kent being a man short from the offset due to Danny Ayres’ broken wrist) took to the track for practice laps. Confusion then followed when despite that practice been given the go-ahead (prematurely as it turned out) the necessary ambulance cover was NOT in the stadium and so it was back to as frustrating waiting game – in sweltering conditions for the visiting riders in the unshaded part of the pits.
Frustratingly for all involved, the ambulance did not arrive until gone 5pm – an hour and a half after the planned start time.
It was as well though that the paramedic cover was fully in place as the meeting was certainly going to overwork the first aid folk on duty. 11 falls in the opening five heats said all that needs to be about the track conditions – with home riders struggling just as much, in truth, as the visitors to cope with the rutted surface.
Bowen was the first victim – his bike hitting a six inch nail which had evaded the trawl of foreign bodies lurking beneath the surface causing the experienced rider to fall. An opening 5-1 saw the homesters take the lead.
The first major controversy occurred in heat two. Jack Thomas was away and clear with Danno Verge in second and it looked like the lead the Fen Tigers had achieved was about immediately to be reined in. Behind Verge, Mildenhall’s 15 year old debutant Jordan Jenkins made an effort to get on terms and fell. Failing to clear the track the red lights came on, only for the referee Paul Carrington to exclude Verge for what was announced as unfair riding.
Undeterred Thomas won the rerun with the other Fen Tigers’ reserve Beebee falling twice.
The in-form Norfolk teenager Thomas was out again in the next race and again leading (in this case heading no less a rider than Kyle Hughes) before back marker Connor Coles fell victim to the track and a rerun was again called for. This time Hughes led the way until hugely unexpectedly for a rider of his class, he too found the conditions too difficult, fell and it was Thomas and David Mason who gleefully accepted the 5-1. The visitors now led and were to do so right up until the final race.
Another fall for Bebee saw a further awarded race in heat 4 (frustratingly so for James Shanes who was right on terms with Danny Halsey when the race was prematurely halted); and then in a pile up with Coles in heat 5, Luke Clifton came to grief on the first bend. For Clifton recent weeks have been a nightmare of bad luck and again a bad knock saw the Canterbury-born racer sidelined – initial reports suggest a broken bone in his hand.
The rerun saw more carnage and huge controversy. Leading again and entering the final straight under pressure from Bowen, Hughes overcooked it and went down. As he remounted he rode right across the path of his team mate Coles who collected him completely – allowing Verge past to cross the line. With both Kings’ riders having finished the race which hadn’t been stopped, it seemed a 5-0 to the visitors; but in a decision which led to many heads being scratched, the result was awarded as if the race had been stopped with Coles given second and so only a 4-2 to the visitors.
Still, with another 4-2 after Shanes’ first win of the afternoon in heat six and then a run of two 5-1s and a 4-2 in heats 8 through to 10 (heat 10 seeing a vintage David Mason victory rolling back the years) establishing a 13 point lead, all seemed set fair for a fourth TPNL away win of the season for the SLYDE-sponsored Kings.,
13 though proved to be an unlucky number indeed. Bowen’s sickening crash saw him join Clifton by having to withdraw with a hand injury and suddenly with Jenkins winning two races (his first in what looks a very promising career) the lead evaporated. There was another moment of huge controversy, though, in the first of Jenkins’ match winning victories in heat 12. It appeared to many closest to the second bend that Jenkins took out Mason who is an extremely rare faller, but this time found himself with nowhere to go – the decision went the home side’s way again though, denting what had been a good performance to this point by the former Mildenhall man, Mason.
Heat 13 (that number again!) was pivotal - with the ever-reliable Jon Armstrong and maximum man Halsey taking a 5-1; and so it all came down to a final heat with Kent’s lead down to just three points.
Shanes was partnered with Mason as the last two men standing in the Kent one to five; they were up against that heat 13 maximum gaining pair of Armstrong and the unbeaten by an opponent, Halsey. Again a referring decision interfered – the experienced Mason being deemed guilty of the newest misdemeanour in the rule book, entering the infield on the way to the tapes. Thomas came in for a seventh ride in his stead.
Shanes had totally missed in the gate in that catastrophic heat 13 and sadly did exactly the same in the final heat where a comfortable 5-1 saw the Fen Tigers snatch the most unlikely of wins and was saluted rapturously by those home fans who remained – many had left, as it turned out prematurely, earlier when the delayed meeting seemed all but certainly to be drifting to a home defeat. But home defeat it was not and though a bonus point was ‘gained’ there was no celebration possible of that, as a serious blow both on track and psychologically was dealt to the SLYDE Kings.
Though in truth it’s not minds that are broken and bruised but bodies, with it being confirmed that both Lukes are out (joining Ayres on the injured list) of Monday’s now absolutely vital TPNL match vs. King’s Lynn Young Stars.
That match gets underway on Monday 8 August at Central Park – 6.30pm start time (gates 5pm). Team news on how the Kent management will assemble a side for this one will follow as soon as available.