There was disappointment at Central Park on Monday when the Kent SLYDE Kings came up just short in their attempt to overcome reigning League champions Birmingham and take the National Trophy.
Four points down from the first leg, the best the Sittingbourne-based Speedway club managed was briefly restoring parity in the aggregate scores before the West Midlanders moved ahead again and indeed at the finish ended the SLYDE Kings’ 100% home record also – emerging victorious by the same score as the first leg (47-43) and therefore an eight point winning margin in total (86-94).
The undoubted star of the Final tie as a whole though was Kent’s Danny Ayres who has moved into the stratosphere of the Travel Plus National League [TPNL] top riders by a remarkable, record breaking performance of ten rides, ten wins, 30 points scored in this NT Final. However the Newmarket-based racer’s prodigious efforts were ultimately to be in vain and the Kent management and fans were left to rue the misfortune of losing their number one and skipper Luke Bowen to injury in the final race of the first leg – for the consequences of their inspirational skipper really hit home at Central Park.
The track recorder holder Dan Greenwood was drafted in for the missing Bowen under Speedway’s controversial ‘Guest’ ruling – and the Central Park faithful must have been wishing the unpopular rule which allows this kind of cover had been consigned to the dustbin because despite previous high scoring efforts for his club Coventry on visits to the track, this time the Chesterfield based rider simply didn’t deliver.
Clutch problems at the start of heat one saw Greenwood limp around in last before being lapped and the ignominy of that seemed to affect his overall performance as he scored only a paltry total of three points.
That alone was probably enough to do for Kent’s chances but another incident in heat two exacerbated matters. Having conceded a 5-1 in the opening race to go 8 behind on aggregate an immediate response was needed and the management got it with Danno Verge storming to the front against Birmingham’s highly rated pair of GB Under 21 stars Jack Parkinson-Blackburn and Jack Smith.
Verge’s colleague Luke Clifton made a heroic pass of Smith only for the teenager to close the door on him in an illegal move clamping Clifton’s body and bike into the fence. The exclusion of Smith was an inevitable outcome but damaging to the SLYDE Kings’ cause and to Clifton was the serious knock he had taken to himself and his machine. Despite being in considerable pain he came out to take a point in the rerun and to carry on but Clifton’s effectiveness was damaged considerably by the incident.
After four heats though, with James Shanes winning his opening ride and Ayres continuing his unbeatable run the initial four points deficit had been made up, the score was 57-57 and hope was in the air.
Sadly though, two consecutive 4-2s for the visitors restored their advantage as the match reached the midway point and the pivotal heat 8, Step up Jack Thomas who rode surely his best ever four laps in senior Speedway to overhaul the impressive Tom Bacon and Smith: a remarkable effort by Kent’s teenager. Shanes repeated the winning dose and going into heat 10 the scores on aggregate were back down to 71-73.
Now was the time the homesters needed Greenwood, but a woeful effort failed entirely to make any impression on the Brummies’ Danyon Hume (so improved from previous visits to Central Park) and Darryl Ritchings and indeed Greenwood only got a point because the ever-trying Thomas fell in a heroic effort to catch the Birmingham men on the last lap.
Shanes lifted the crowd with a breathtaking third to first win in heat 12 with Ayres winning heats 11 and 13, but shared races weren’t enough; and Smith and Ritchings combining for another maximum in the penultimate race clinched the Trophy for their side and indeed ended the SLYDE Kings’ hopes of at least retaining their unbeaten home record.
Co-promoter Len Silver commented on a night of disappointment for Kent,
“It was obviously a big disappointment to lose. Little did we appreciate what a catastrophic event it was when our skipper looped it in heat 15 at Birmingham to, firstly, give the Brummies a 4 point lead they did not deserve, but ultimately to cost us the Trophy itself. But such things occur in our unpredictable sport and all we can do is to take it on the chin and congratulate Birmingham for a fine performance.
“All the boys were devastated, none more so than double “Max'” man, Danny Verge who was superb over both legs and gives his absolute all for this club. I was proud of the effort everyone made and my heart bled for Luke Clifton especially. I had given him and Danno Verge the task of pulling a 5-1 in heat two against the best reserve pairing in the league.”
“The sheer effort put in by both of them to achieve this was clear for all to see only to witness that horrific back straight crash. Luke then showed bravery and dedication to the cause by carrying on racing while in severe pain; no manager can ask or expect such loyalty.”
“A word too for James Shanes who had one of his best meetings so far and in doing so providing us with a load of heart stopping moments – how lucky we are to have such a thrill maker with us.
“So we put this near miss behind us and get on with the job of moving up the league table and into the last stages of the K.O Cup.”
That campaign continues next Monday (4 July) when Kent host Buxton Hitmen in a TPNL fixture – 6.30pm start time
Aggregate: Kent. 86 Birmingham 94
Kent SLYDE Kings 43
D.Greenwood [G] Lpd 2 1 0 3
J.Thomas 1 0 3 0 4
J.Shanes 3 2 3 3 1 12
D.Mason 2* 0 1 1 4+1
D.Ayres 3 3 3 3 3 15 [M]
D.Verge 3 0 0 0 3
L.Clifton 1 1 0 0 2
Birmingham Brummies 47
Z.Wajtknecht 2* 3 2 2 2 11+1
T.Bacon 3 1 2 1* 7+1
D.Hume 1 2 3 1* 0 7+1
D.Ritchings 0 1* 2* 2* 5+3
T.Perry 2 1 2 1* 6+1
J.Smith X 3 1* 2 3 9+1
J.Parkinson-Blackburn 2 0 0 2
Heat details: (aggregate scores shown)
- Bacon, Wajtknecht, Thomas, Greenwood (lpd), 58.4 (44-52)
- (re-run) Verge, Parkinson-Blackburn, Clifton, Smith (exc) 61.0 (48-54)
- Shanes, Mason, Hume, Ritchings, 57.7 (53-55)
- Ayres, Perry, Clifton, Parkinson-Blackburn, 58.4 (57-57)
- Wajtknecht, Shanes, Bacon, Mason, 59.1 (59-61)
- Smith, Greenwood, Perry, Thomas, 59.4 (61-65)
- Ayres, Hume, Ritchings, Verge, 60.1 (64-68)
- Thomas, Bacon, Smith, Clifton, 60.0 (67-71)
- Shanes, Perry, Mason, Parkinson-Blackburn, 58.6 (71-73)
- Hume, Ritchings, Greenwood, Thomas (f.rem), 60.8 (72-78)
- Ayres, Wajtknecht, Bacon, Verge, 62.9 (75-81)
- Shanes, Smith, Hume, Clifton, 61.9 (78-84)
- Ayres, Wajtknecht, Perry, Greenwood, 61.2 (81-87)
- Smith, Ritchings, Mason, Verge, 60.3 (82-92)
- Ayres, Wajtknecht, Shanes, Hume, 60.1 (86-94)