The Warriors take to the track tomorrow (Monday) when they will be in action at Sittingbourne taking on the Kent in the final meeting of the National Trophy competition – a fixture that will determine which of the two sides lifts the title for 2019.
Against many pundits’ expectations, the Island side have battled very hard to set up the possibility of silverware and whilst the home side will go into the meeting as favourites, the Warriors are in determined mood knowing that an away win by seven or more would send shock waves through the sport.
Whilst the Wightlink Warriors go into the meeting at full strength the Kings, in front of what will be a partisan and noisy home following, will still be without injury victims Alex Spooner and Dan Gilkes and will also miss the services of Jordan Jenkins who is taking examinations on the day. In his place Kent have brought in Plymouth’s Richard Andrews for a guest appearance.
Warriors co-promoter Barry Bishop was under no illusion about the task ahead as he said,” After last Thursday I’m thrilled that the Warriors have a chance to influence the outcome of such a prestigious meeting. I know the Kent riders and fans will arrive in confident mood, but we have a plan and with former Kent riders Ben Morley and Danno Verge in our side, plus Georgie Wood’s affinity with Central Park we will go out to put on a show and do our best to make everyone connected to the Warriors very proud”.
Also attending tomorrow night’s showdown will be the National League’s speedway supremo Jason Pipe who said, “I’m really looking forward to travelling down to Kent from my North East base this coming Monday to present the National Trophy to the winners of this mini league. As a neutral, I’m hoping it goes down to the very last race on Monday evening.
I’m so pleased to see that this has gone down to the very last meeting of the competition. Before the competition started, many fans were predicting that Kent would walk away with this Trophy, but thankfully for the good of the Competition, it hasn’t turned out that way!
Who would have predicted that it would come down to the very last meeting of the competition?! I’ve also heard and read many people writing off the Isle of Wight before the competition started, but they have been the surprise team of the Competition and they deservedly go in to this last fixture with a very good chance of winning it, especially when you have riders like George Wood, Ben Morley and Danno Verge in your side, who know their way around Central Park. They have got a very good team spirit going on the Island, which has helped them to pull off one or two interesting results, especially the draw away at Plymouth and the home win over Kent.
Best of luck to both clubs and let’s hope whoever wins, Speedway is the winner at the end of the night!”
Kings: Drew Kemp, Rider Replacement for Alex Spooner, Anders Rowe, Richard Andrews, Rob Ledwith, Jacob Clouting and Nathan Ablitt.
Warriors: Georgie Wood, Chris Widman, Ryan Terry-Daley, Danno Verge, Ben Morley, Chad Wirtzfeld and Connor King.