STOKE A.R. Richards Potters get their home National League season underway on Sunday when they entertain the Kent Kings at Loomer Road, 3pm.
The Potters will give a debut to Joe Lawlor who comes into the side replacing Luke Chessell who informed his Championship side Glasgow he was standing down resulting in a 28-day ban and the Potters management didn’t want to put pressure on the remaining riders and felt there was no other option but to bring in Lawlor.
Kent have been tipped by many pundits as title winners and have built up a solid and youthful side. The Kings have drafted in their former number 1 Ben Morley as a guest for Drew Kemp who is on Championship duty and always scores well around the Loomer Road bowl while he will be supported by another Stoke track specialist in Anders Rowe with Jordan Jenkins completing a solid top three. Veteran Rob Ledwith skippers the Kings while they will use rider replacement for Alex Spooner who is out injured. At reserve the Kings have Nathan Ablitt along with Dan Gilkes who was sort after by several clubs over the close season.
Potters team manager Adam Isherwood said “Kent are a very good side and it will be a tough meeting for us, their side is full of promise and has been put together well by the canny Len Silver, equally we are just as strong and have had people talking about us so we will see how things go. We have brought in Joe Lawlor as a replacement for Luke Chessell who I do feel so for, but we didn’t want to put extra pressure on the rest of the lads. I feel that the move for Luke to Glasgow may have been a bit to soon after a year out with serious injury and he just needs time on the bike and he will be fine but we had to do something and I’m sure he understands. Joe (Lawlor) is an all action rider and goes well around here and he’ll be looking to grab this opportunity with both hands and hopefully help us to get our home season off to a winning start on Sunday.”
STOKE: Tom Perry (Captain), Shelby Rutherford, Joe Lawlor, Luke Priest, Connor Coles, Corban Pavitt, Joe Alcock KENT: Ben Morley, Alex Spooner R/R, Anders Rowe, Jordan Jenkins, Rob Ledwith (Captain), Dan Gilkes, Nathan Ablitt
