They say it never rains but it pours, and there was no rain, but it poured on the Warriors last night (Tuesday).
In fact Promoter Martin Widman must have ran over half a dozen black cats as well as his team, who were already without Charlie Southwick (concussion) and Mickie Simpson (unavailable), then were dealt a further blow when number 1. Darryl Ritchings was ruled out after a crash on Sunday.
The Warriors supreme managed to bring in James Shanes for Southwick, but were left to use rider replacement for Ritchings and had to go without a number 6.
It was always going to be a tough ask against a full strength Kent side tracking former Great Britain international Edward Kennet and former Warrior Ben Morley and with these issues, so it proved.
Even, with the said issues the home side made a good fight of things and kept their south coast opponents honest, but in the end the challenge was just too much.
Visiting number one Edward Kennett shot to a first heat win over Shanes, showing all his previous experience with a class ride, but Captain Danno Verge took third for a shared heat.
Heat two was shared as well after Jack Kingston dived under Arran Butcher on turn 3 of lap 2 before James Laker took third just as the race was stopped with Alex Chadd inspecting the safety fence.
Kent went in front in the third with a 1-5 after Verge came down on the last lap whilst second behind Ben Morley, gifting Connor King second, Verge pushing his machine quarter of a lap for the third place point, making the score 7-11.
Kennett then left both Shanes and Butcher in his dust with a blistering time of 70.5 seconds before Kingston won the fifth from Laker, who did well to pass Chadd third.
Shanes heading home Morley, before more disaster struck the home team as Verge pulled up with machine issues, gifting King third, Verge was seen by the paramedics and withdrawn on medical conditions after feeling dizzy leaving the home team with just three fit riders.
Kennett duly won the seventh by a country mile as the visitors piled on the agony, Butcher holding second from Hargrave. 17-25
Heat 8 have the home fans something to cheer when Shanes headed home the fast charging Kingston, with the extra busy Laker taking third.
Any lingering home of a fight back was quickly dealt with as in a rerun heat nine, saw both Morley and Laker fall respectively on turns 4 and 3, Morley remounted but Laker stayed down and was disqualified from the restart.
The rerun proved to be pretty special as Morley and Butcher passed and re-passed each other before Morley using his entire track craft, took the win.
Kennett then headed home Butcher with Hargrave unopposed third for a 25-35 lead.
Heat eleven was the race of the night Kingston looked good for a win with Shanes chasing hard for the whole race before a master class pass on the final turn and then a run in to the line, snatching the win by a tyres width, Butch having to watch the action from behind third. It was a race which really summed up the dogged determination in the home camp, to go down fighting, but now with the score at 29-37, that task was looking very difficult.
The match was decided in heat twelve, when the visitors took a comfortable 1-5, over the tiring Laker for a 30-42 lead.
Shanes won heat thirteen by almost half a lap, but he was on his own in a shared heat and the match result was done and dusted.
With the result no longer in doubt, Kent rubbed some more salt into the home side with another 1-5 with Kingston and King comfortable in front of Laker, who had now completed 7 rides.
The final heat was a humdinger with Shanes making sure Kennett didn’t go home with a maximum, an excellent second bend swoop past Butcher, with Kennett caught in traffic, back in third, and although Kennett passed Butcher, he could not catch the spectacular Warrior, Butcher passing Morley for a consultation 4-2 and a final score of 38-52.
Scores.
IOW; Shanes 19, Verge 2+1, Butcher 11+1, Laker 6+1, Rider Replacement Southwick.
KENT; Kennett 14, Hargrave 3, Kingston 13, Chadd 3, Morley 11. King 8.
In the GT140S Island Championship, it was Wayne Broadhurst who came out on top, with a clean sheet of race wins. Second was Steve Newsham, with Kevin Gwillam third
Promoter Martin Widman said:
“Where do I start? “In what was supposed to be a great final meeting, the Warriors were hit by the last minute withdrawal of Darryl Ritchings following a grass track injury and this on top of using the rider replacement facility meant an unbalanced line up. Our riders never let their heads drop, even after losing skipper Danno Verge, and when asked if they would cover his absence, all of them jumped at the challenge of riding in 7 heats. I couldn’t have been more proud of the effort that they put in to challenge a strong Kent side. All through the meeting we kept the scores close and whilst we may have lost the match, we can consider it to be a moral victory”
It brought the curtain down and an end to racing on the Island for 2026, but the Warriors still have one match left, when the travel to Kent for the return meeting next Sunday 6th September, 12:00 start.
