For the home side there was the positives that, Jordan Jenkins and Alex Spooner seem to have put their recent injury problems behind them. Another jewel in the crown was Jacob Clouting who put in a very stylish ride to win Heat 2.
Things got off to a bad start for the Kings when Drew Kemp spun on the third turn of the first lap and was duly excluded for his uncharacteristic tumble. This paved the way for the visitors to take an early lead.
The Kings gained the advantage with a maximum heat win in heat 3 with a 5-1 from Jenkins and Kings top scorer Anders Rowe. The stage was then set though for a former hero to prove a thorn in the Kings side, the scores were levelled in Heat 4 as Ben Morley took the win, the first step to a quite exceptional flawless paid 18 (17+1) point maximum from the twice National League Riders’ Champion.
The middle third of the meeting was the Kings’, who looked to have turned the screw to lead them to a victory. Already holding a two point lead a 4-2 in Heat 7; which saw a fantastic ride by unattached replacement James Laker (in for the injured Jake Mulford) skillfully holding off former American World Cup Squad member Scott Campos for what turned out to be a crucial point. The Kings followed this up with a maximum 5-1 heat advantage in Heat 8, from Spooner and Clouting, to move the hosts into an eight points lead.
It was the aforementioned Morley who started the Isle of Wight comeback over the last six races as the visitors took four heat advantages, three of which were 4-2’s including in the crucial last heat decider and a 5-1 in heat 13 which really set the fightback in motion.
The upshot from tonight is that the TouchTec Kings move up to third in the National NL table, three points behind surprise early pace setters Isle of Wight with two matches in hand. The Kings move on to the National League Four Team Tournament at Stoke next, where, on Saturday, the top four averaged Kent riders will go up against the rest of the National League looking for another piece of silverware to go alongside the National Trophy. The next full team fixture is at home to the Cradley Heathens next Monday (15/7) at the usual time of 6:30pm.
Kent TouchTec Kings 45
Drew Kemp FX 2 2 1 5
Alex Spooner 2 1′ 3 0 6+1
Anders Rowe 2′ 3 2 3 2 12+1
Jordan Jenkins 3 1 1′ 3 0 8+1
Rob Ledwith 2 3 2 F 7
Jacob Clouting 3 2′ 0 1 F 6+1
James Laker 0 0 1 1
Isle Of Wight Warriors 45
Georgie Wood 3 2 3 3 1 12
Chad Wirtzfield 1 0 1 1 3
Scott Campos 0 0 2 2
Danno Verge 1 2 1 2 6
Ben Morley 3 3 3 3 2′ 3 17+1 [PM]
Chris Widman 1′ 0 0 0 1+1
Connor King 2 1 0 1′ 4+1
Heat details
1 (rerun) Wood, Spooner, Wirtzfield, Kemp (fell exc.) 59.1 (2-4)
2 Clouting, King, Widman, Laker 61.1 (5-7)
3 Jenkins, Rowe, Verge, Campos 59.6 (10-8)
4 Morley, Ledwith, King, Laker 59.6 (12-12)
5 Rowe, Wood, Jenkins, Wirtzfield 59.2 (16-14)
6 Morley, Kemp, Spooner, Widman 60.5 (19-17)
7 Ledwith, Verge, Laker, Campos 61.1 (23-19)
8 Spooner, Clouting, Wirtzfield, King 61.4 (28-20)
9 Morley, Rowe, Jenkins, Widman 60.1 (31-23)
10 Morley [T/S], Kemp, Verge, Spooner 61.4 (33-27)
11 Wood, Ledwith, Wirtzfield, Clouting 59.9 (35-31)
12 Rowe, Campos, Clouting, Widman 59.7 (39-33)
13 Wood, Morley, Kemp, Ledwith (fell) 60.8 (40-38)
14 Jenkins, Verge, King, Clouting (fell) 60.8 (43-41)
15 Morley, Rowe, Wood, Jenkins 60.4 (45-45)