Kent TouchTec Kings got back to winning ways and moved off the bottom spot in the SGB Championship on Tuesday with a win over Edinburgh Monarchs at Central Park.
The final result of 46-43 rather belies the fact that this was a more decisive victory than the final three point margin suggests – an all round team showing with all riders playing their part.
It was especially heartening for another large home crowd to see Jake Mulford record a debut race win at this level and for Cameron Heeps to also take the chequered flag in the race which sealed victory for the TouchTec Kings.
And all of this came after what could very well have been a terminal blow to their hopes of a second win of his inaugural SGBC campaign: losing ‘Rising Star’ reserve Dan Gilkes to injury in the second heat of the match. That was an alarming tumble for sure, when a first bend melee initiated by the onomatopeially-named Luke Crang led to a coming together with the other Monarchs rider Nathan Greaves and saw Gilkes thrown off his machine.
Just two back in the rerun as Crang was disqualified as the cause of the stoppage and a battered and shaken Gilkes unfit. And to the delight of the home fans, Mulford powered to that first ever race win in this division – increasing the homesters’ lead established when Troy Batchelor had won the opening ride and Ben Morley had got third.
Race wins followed in the next two heats for Paul Starke and the skipper Scott Nicholls to cement an excellent start for the hosts . With Batchelor & Nicholls continuing their winning ways, the lead for the TouchTec Kings was opened up to seven points by the half way point of the match and when Kent number one Batchelor reeled off race win three, combining with Morley again for a 4-2 in heat 10 the gap was nine points with just five heats remaining.
A win for the Scots’ own number one Aussie, Sam Masters ending Nicholls’ maximum hopes in the next race steadied the ship for the visitors, who then struck back by deploying the reigning Australian Champion Masters as a Tactical Sub in heat 12 where a 1-5 meant the gap was down now to just five.
Heat 13 saw Masters out for a third race in a row but his compatriot Batchelor was not to be denied a fourth race win on the night and set things up for a heat 14 climax. And the other Aussie in the TouchTec Kings septet who had been struggling in recent weeks with the after effects of a very nasty shoulder injury came good – an exuberant Cameron Heeps combining with Mulford to take the 4-2 needed to win the match.
Which just left the nominated riders’ final heat to go and this was a race with a feeling of after the Lord Mayors’ Show about it with a surprise 1-5 to the visitors (meaning they took away a bonus point which will benefit their own title hopes): Masters and young Aussie Kye Thomsen combining as they had in heat 12 for a race maximum and sadly ending their countryman Batchelor’s hopes of a match full house.
Kent co-promoter Len Silver was keen to single out the efforts of young rookie rider Jake Mulford for his vital contribution to the victory,
“Jake’s performance, including a “from the back” win in heat two and a total of 7 (paid 8) won us the match and had me literally jumping for joy. He’d blown an engine in his opening ride last week and told me that the replacement machinery was in his words “an old Grasstrack bike engine that’s been sitting in the corner of the garage for months” – so I was hugely pleased to see that despite this, it did the trick and saw Jake to his best ever scoring performance at this level.”
“This did compensate for the potentially huge blow of losing Dan [Gilkes] to a nasty crash in his first ride – fortunately no serious injuries and Dan will be back in action next week.”
That match next Tuesday (17th. August) sees another long travelling visiting team arrive at Central Park, the Berwick Bandits.
Kent TouchTec Kings 46
Troy Batchelor 3, 3, 3, 3, 0 = 12
Ben Morley 1, 1, 2, 1 = 5
Paul Starke 3, 2, 3, X, 1 = 9
Cameron Heeps 0, 1′, 1, 3 = 5+1
Scott Nicholls 3, 3, 2, 0 = 8
Jake Mulford 3, 0, 1, 0, 1′, 1, 1 = 7+1
Dan Gilkes injured – withdrawn
Edinburgh Monarchs 43
Sam Masters 2, 3, 3, 3, 2, 3 = 16
Rider Replacement – William Lawson
Kye Thomson 1′, R, 3, 2, 2′, 2′ = 10+3
Josh Pickering 2, 2, Fx, 0 = 4
Richie Worrall 2, 2, 2, 1′ = 7+1
Luke Crang 0, X, 0, 0 = 0
Nathan Greaves 2, 1′, Fx, 1, F, 2 = 6+1
Heat details
1 Batchelor, Masters, Morley, Crang 57.8 [4-2]
2 (rerun) Mulford, Greaves, Crang (exc), Gilkes (injured) 59.0 [7-4]
3 Starke, Pickering, Thomson, Heeps 57.8 [10-7]
4 Nicholls, Worrall, Greaves, Mulford 57.7 [13-10]
5 (rerun) Masters, Starke, Heeps, Greaves (fell exc.) 58.4 [16-13]
6 Batchelor, Worrall, Morley, Crang 58.3 [20-15]
7 Nicholls, Pickering, Mulford, Thomson (ret.) 57.4 [24-17]
8 Thomson, Morley, Greaves, Mulford 58.0 [26-21]
9 Starke, Worrall, Heeps, Crang 58.1 [30-23]
10 (rerun) Batchelor, Thomson, Morley, Pickering (fell exc.) 58.4 [34-25]
11 Masters, Nicholls, Mulford, Greaves (fell) 59.5 [37-28]
12 (rerun) Masters [T/S], Thomson, Mulford, Starke (exc.) 59.3 [38-33]
13 Batchelor, Masters, Worrall, Nicholls 58.6 [41-36]
14 Heeps, Greaves, Mulford, Pickering 59.4 [45-38]
15 Masters, Thomson, Starke, Batchelor 59.0 [46-43]