A shared final heat after the visitors had been leading virtually all match, saw Chris Hunt’s charges continue their outstanding current form to take a 46-43 victory and 3 league vital league points.

Ben Hopwood was the top scorer for the visitors with 15+1 taking his tally to 30+1 in a week against the Fen Tigers.

Ben was joined in double figures by stand in captain Jack Thomas (10) – who retains his 100% record skippering the team – and Kiwi-born Bradley Andrews (9+1).

The meeting started with fighting talk from the home camp with a less than generous comment made over the stadium PA by Mildenhall promoter Kevin Jolly that the only reason his side had lost so badly the previous Monday at Central Park was a poor track at Kent’s stadium home. Ironically his words were broadcast in front of a backdrop of an extraordinarily heavy and uneven track surface at the Fenland venue – which even more ironically was ultimately to catch out his own team rather than the plucky visitors.

It was an eventful start in the opening races as in Heat 1 the SLYDE Kings’ first-timer ‘guest’ Adam Roynon became the first victim of the track conditions and ran out of room on bend 2, crashing into the fence as the red lights came on the two Mildenhall riders getting in a tangle on bends 3 and 4.

The re-run was staged without the disqualified former Conference League Riders Champion Roynon and saw Mildenhall take an opening 4-2 heat advantage. The second heat saw two riders excluded from the original staging after both Kent’s George Hunter and Mildenhall’s Sam Woods fell in separate incidents. The rerun was won by Bradley Andrews from another former King Danno Verge.

Heat 3 saw Kent take the lead after a 5-1 heat advantage from Ben Hopwood and Anders Rowe over Luke Ruddick. It was a lead they were destined never to surrender in what is a first ever win at West Row for the club.

The match was tight over the next few races a 4-2 heat advantage to Mildenhall in the fourth heat was countered by a Kent 5-1 in the fifth, the Fen Tigers then added another 4-2 in heats 6 and 8. This made the score 24-23 in favour of the Kings.

Stand in skipper Jack Thomas played a captain’s part in Heat 9 with a tapes to flag victory over the evergreen Jon Armstrong and with Andrews getting the better of Ruddick, the Kings moved three points clear (28-25) with 6 heats to go.

Two shared heats were to follow before another until an almost decisive Heat 12 – Armstrong suffered mechanical gremlins and the Kings duo of Hopwood and Andrews got the better of Verge to move the Kings seven clear (39-32) with just three heats to go.

Prior to Heat 13 both Kent riders appeared on track in a white helmet colour cue Ben Hopwood dashing from the pits to bring Thomas a yellow and black helmet cover – a sign of the underlying unity in the Kings ranks. The first attempt to run the race saw it pulled back with an unsatisfactory and a warning issued to Connor Mountain. Undeterred, Mountain and his partner Dan Halsey conquered the Kings duo and to bring the score back to within three points. A shared race in Heat 14 set up the all-important last heat decider.

That last race brought about a scenario which saw anything less than a 5-1 for the home team seal victory for the Kings. There were none among the large contingent of travelling Kings’ followers who didn’t recall that this was exactly the same scenario last year when a last heat 5-1 reverse had left Kent hearts broken. And lightning nearly did strike twice as it was the Mountain/Halsey combination that held the lead until, 370 days after such bad luck befell the Kings at West Row before, lady luck this time was in favour of the visitors and the previously unbeaten Halsey suffered an engine failure which meant a shared heat and the league points to the exultant Kings.

This victory sees Kent move to within five points of the Play Off places with meetings in hand over all teams currently in the top four. The Kings have a busy week ahead taking on Lakeside on Monday (14/8 at 6:30pm) with Roynon continuing his stint as ‘guest’ number one and travelling to Plymouth on Friday (18/8 at 7:15pm).

Mildenhall
C. Mountain 3 3 2 2’ 3 13+1
J. Jenkins 1 1 3 1’ 6+1
J. Armstrong 0 1 2 R 3
L. Ruddick 1 0 0 3 4
D. Halsey 3 3 3 3 R 12
S. Woods FX 0 0 0
D. Verge 2 1 1 1 0 5

Kent
A Roynon FX 2’ 2 0 4+1
Rider Replacement
B Hopwood 3 3 2 3 3 1’ 15+1
A Rowe 2’ 1’ 0 1’ 2 6+3
J Thomas 2 0 2 3 1 2 10
B Andrews 2 3 2 F 2’ 9+1
G Hunter FX 0 1 1’ 2+1

HT
1: (Re-run) Mountain, Andrews, Jenkins, Roynon (FX) (4-2)
2: (Re-Run) Andrews, Verge, Woods (FX) Hunter (FX) (6-5)
3: Hopwood, Rowe, Ruddick, Armstrong (7-10)
4: (Re-Run) Halsey, Thomas, Verge, Hunter (11-12)
5: Hopwood, Roynon, Armstrong, Ruddick (12-17)
6: Mountain, Andrews, Jenkins, Thomas (16-19)
7: Halsey, Hopwood, Rowe, Woods (19-22)
8: Jenkins, Thomas, Verge, Andrews (F) (23-24)
9: Thomas, Armstrong, Hunter, Ruddick (25-28)
10: Hopwood, Mountain, Jenkins, Rowe (28-31)
11: Halsey, Roynon, Rowe, Woods (31-34)
12: Hopwood, Andrews, Verge, Armstrong (ret) (32-39)
13: (Re-Run) Halsey, Mountain, Thomas, Roynon (37-40)
14: Ruddick, Rowe, Hunter, Verge (40-43)
15: Mountain, Thomas, Hopwood, Halsey (ret) (43-46)