The Kent ‘SLYDE’ Kings eclipsed the King’s Lynn Young Stars in an emphatic victory in the Travel Plus National League [TPNL] at Central Park this evening (15/5).
The Kings clocked in 14 heat winners and 12 heat advantages to run out 64-26 over a King’s Lynn side which apart from skipper Josh Bailey offered little resistance.
The meeting started in swift fashion as undefeated skipper Luke Bowen took the win in the opening race in a time of 56.6 just half a second outside the track record. Luke Clifton followed in third behind Young Stars captain Josh Bailey for an opening race 4-2.
Anders Rowe making his home debut was one of the stars of the show he was only beaten once by an opponent (Ryan Kinsley in heat four) and in his first ride at home in heat number two contributed to a commanding 5-1 behind heat winner Bradley Andrews.
The 5-1 in the reserves race was quickly followed by another in a re-run heat three when paid maximum man Ben Hopwood and Jack Thomas took the spoils over King’s Lynn guest Chris Widman and Lewis Whitmore. These back to back maximum heat advantages were the opening two of eight 5-1’s for the home side.
Following a 4-2 for the Kings in heat four, heat five looked to be going Kent’s way again until the teenager Thomas suffered mechanical gremlins when in a scoring position - gifting a rare share of the points to the visitors. More mechanical gremlins were to strike the home side in a re-run heat six after Connor Locke was excluded for taking a tumble. The two Lukes, Bowen and Clifton were comfortably on for another 5-1 when Clifton pulled up on the back straight of the last lap - he did push home though to take the remaining point and stretch the Kings lead to now 14 points. The gap remained at 14 after Nathan Stoneman won the seventh but King’s Lynn backed the minor places but not before an alarming first turn coming together between Stoneman and Bailey.
Heats eight and nine were once again back to back 5-1 heat advantages first from Clifton and Rowe the second from Hopwood and Thomas. The original staging of Heat 10 was brought to an abrupt halt when the visitors’ out of sorts Widman picked up drive and collected the hosts’ skipper Bowen exiting turn 2 - the King’s Lynn man disqualified for his troubles. The re-run was won by the imperious Bowen over the steady Kinsley with Clifton taking third.
Bailey took King’s Lynn’s sole heat victory in Heat 11 after the SLYDE Kings’ number six Andrews was disqualified for a first corner incident. This left Whitmore to pick up the third place point but with Stoneman taking second the win was secured for the home team with four races to spare.
Those final four races all finished with the Kings taking maximum points – as an emphatic win was turned into a drubbing and the 60 plus points mark was reached for a second TPNL match in a row. The most notable of the races was saved for Heat 13 when Bowen and Stoneman went either side of Josh Bailey with barely enough room for a cigarette paper between all three riders. The final race saw Captain Bowen and Hopwood complete their full and paid maximums respectively. For Bowen, in the form of his life, it is now an extraordinary 25 consecutive races unbeaten around Central Park since being excluded from Heat 1 on Good Friday.
The two sides will resume battle once again on Wednesday (17/5) at the Adrian Flux Arena in King’s Lynn.
Kent’s next home meeting meanwhile sees the Stoke Potters coming to Central Park next Monday (22/5 - 6.30pm start time) in further TPNL action.
Kent SLYDE Kings 64 Luke Bowen 3 3 3 3 3 15 Luke Clifton 1 1 3 1 6 Ben Hopwood 3 3 3 3 2’ 14+1 Jack Thomas 2’ r 2’ 3 7+2 Nathan Stoneman 3 3 2 2’ 10+1 Bradley Andrews 3 0 X 2’ 5+1 Anders Rowe 2’ 1 2’ 2’ 7+3
King’s Lynn Young Stars 26 Josh Bailey 2 2 2 3 1 10 Lewis Whitmore 0 0 1’ 1 1 R 3+1 Rider Replacement for Scott Campos Chris Widman 1 1’ X 2+1 Ryan Kinsley 2 2 1 2 R 1 8 Connor Locke 0 X 0 R R 0 Taylor Hampshire 1 0 0 1 1 3