The Warriors picked up their second on-track trophy of the season with a magnificent win in Kent, but victory has come at a price as the club anxiously wait on news of Danno Verge who was involved in an ugly first bend crash with Plymouth rival Adam Extance.
Up to that point it had been a superb display from the Warriors with unbeaten Georgie Wood and Ben Morley making mincemeat of the opposition with ideal back up coming from Verge and Connor King. Plymouth started the night as overall leaders, but they were soon reeled in and with Kent encountering several problems, it looked like Wood and Morley’s outings in heats 15 and 16 would see the Warriors home and hosed. Regrettably it didn’t get that far as the match was abandoned as a result of the crash.
Warrior’s co-promoter shared the latest news saying, “"The Warriors were riding superbly as a team and the side had real momentum throughout the meeting. We managed to quickly pull back the Gladiators advantage and take the lead by the halfway stage and team manager Kevin Shepherd simply asked that the team continued the second half in the same way. All was going swimmingly until Danno and Adam Extance tangled in bend one of heat 14 with both riders falling heavily and both going off the Medway Hospital. Adam has come off the worse with a fractured shoulder, ribs and bruised lung while Danno has had a CT scan for a suspected back injury.
While it’s amazing to have another piece of silverware I would have rather lost than win like this but that’s part of speedway and I am delighted for the team. Thanks also to Len Silver of Silver Ski for suggesting the brilliant Fours style meeting which was exciting to the end."
Tuesday morning update from Danno himself:
"Just would like to say thank you to everyone for the get well messages. Apparently it was a pretty big crash last night. I was knocked unconscious for quite a while and then they suspected that I had broken my back. Luckily the CT scans showed up okay and I haven't broken my back. Due to being knocked unconscious for a while I now have to have 9 days off the bike so I will miss a couple of meetings unfortunately. My head's pretty sore and struggling to move or walk properly due to all the swelling and bruising to my back and foot. But being forced to sit out for a week or so will give me time to heal up hopefully. Hope Adam heals quickly too, once again thank you to all the messages sorry I can't reply to them all".
Scorers (subject to confirmation):
Kent 18 (Anders Rowe 4, Jordan Jenkins 5, Drew Kemp 6, Dan Gilkes 3) – Aggregate 65.
Plymouth 12 (David Wallinger 4, Richard Andrews 2, Adam Extance 0, Nathan Stoneman 6) – Aggregate 76.
Warriors 24 (Georgie Wood 9, Ben Morley 9, Danno Verge 3, Connor King 3) – Aggregate 81.
Breem 17 (Danyon Hume 5, Matt Marson 2, Luke Harris 3, Paul Hurry 7) – Aggregate 39.