The Kent Speedway calendar for the highly-anticipated 2021 season is now complete with the confirmation of the fixtures for the club’s new ‘second side, the Kent Royals who are competing in the National League [NL].

This is the sport’s third tier and the one the Central Park-based club have contested from 2013 to 2019, so with the main side the Kent TouchTec Kings moving up to the Championship league it’s a real boost for fans that they’ll also still be a side contesting the NL in 2021.

Sponsored by local business and good friends and backers of the club, Iwade Garage the new Royals’ side is confirmed as (with averages):

Ryan Kinsley 8.00

Dan Gilkes 8.00

Rob Ledwith (Captain) 5.93

Jacob Clouting 3.13

Jamie Bursill 3.13

Jake Mulford 3.00

Josh Warren 3.00

Kent Speedway co-promoter Chris Hunt is clear about the importance to the club of continuing to enter a team in the NL,

“The league is very important to us at Kent as it should be to British Speedway as a whole. It’s where youngsters start out and develop their skills and riding know-how – and that’s helped of course by some the more experienced riders in the division. The development side is very much to the fore with the number of senior clubs in the Championship and top division too entering junior sides in this year’s NL.

“We’re very much supporting the league and its efforts to improve Britain’s young and up and coming Speedway riders.”

Of the Royals’ line up Chris comments,

“We are fortunate that we have some really good youngsters in the 2021 Royals line-up and they’re all dedicated wanting to race. I think there’s a really good percentage of that team who really have big futures in the sport.

“If we could have boys coming through the Royals side and on into the TouchTec Kings team in the Championship that would be absolutely brilliant for us and that is our aim for the future”.

The NL really does even more than ever justify the ‘national’ title with a side from Scotland in Armadale from just outside Edinburgh and another new side at this level being just over the border at Berwick. The away match at Berwick will twin with the visit of the senior Royals’ side in August and the following day it’ll be likewise at Newcastle who having confirmed their entry to the NL making that second part of the double header in the north-east city being a league match.

The season for the Royals will open against opponents from far nearer home in the form of the Eastbourne Seagulls – that’s at Central Park on the afternoon of Bank Holiday Monday, May 31st. The sole remaining ‘stand-alone ‘ track in the NL, the Suffolk Fens-based Mildenhall visit on the other Bank Holiday Monday in August; with the visits to both traditional rivals Eastbourne & Mildenhall being in September when the majority of the home NL fixtures are also tabled in.

NL fixtures follow:

Monday 31st May EASTBOURNE    H 4.00pm

Tuesday 22nd. June LEICESTER  H

Friday 2nd. July Belle Vue A

Tuesday 27th. July NEWCASTLE H  (provisional TBC)

Saturday 7th. August Leicester A

Saturday 21st. August Berwick A after Berwick v Kent CL

Sunday 22nd. August Newcastle A after Newcastle v Kent CL

Monday 30th. August MILDENHALL H 4.00pm

Saturday 4th. September Eastbourne A after Eastbourne v Kent CL

Friday 10th. September Armadale A

Tuesday 14th. September ARMADALE H (provisional TBC)

Sunday 19th. September Mildenhall A

Tuesday 21st. September BERWICK  H (provisional TBC)

Tuesday 28th. September BELLE VUE  H (provisional TBC)