Stars continue to shine during pivotal month

In terms of it being make or break for the King’s Lynn Stars in 2025, June was always going to be a pivotal month with seven fixtures planned which could ultimately decide our play-off fate. As I write this, the month couldn’t be going much better.Having seen off the Ipswich Witches already at the beginning of the month in the first leg of the Knockout Cup Semi-Final, we left Ritchie Hawkins once again bubbling nicely in the corner, as we comprehensively saw them off again in league action to make it four wins on the bounce.I was unable to attend the fixture due to a calamitous injury over the weekend, but I was kept nicely informed of the ongoing events, and it was pleasing to see us take the victory on the evening, and pick up another couple of useful points.What was particularly pleasing was the performances from a couple of key figures.Jody Scott made his home debut for the senior side, stepping up seamlessly from the Young Stars into the reserve position and being involved in a 5-1 in heat two.Alongside him during this race was the Pride of the East Podcast sponsored Rider of the Night, Jan Kvech, and the GP regular made a mockery of the position, scoring 18+2/7 in a fantastic display of gating and passing. This is how the side was built, with a powerhouse reserve.What spoiled a good evening was probably the attitude of a certain Mr Hawkins in the away camp. He had plenty to say prior to the meeting, and in the lead-up to the fixture, and this only acted as fuel for the Stars. No end of meeting handshake from him to Rob, only stirred up further animosity from the fanbase towards him. Stay magnanimous, Ritchie, and stay humble. Remember, your career was hardly blessed with a plethora of trophies. This victory came off the back of our first away league victory of the season at Oxford, ironically the team we beat away in the KO Cup earlier in the season.We only have to look down the scorecard again to see how solid we are, and we are now reaping the rewards of persevering with the early season frailties. Niels and Chris were particularly impressive, picking up 25 paid 27, but it is becoming difficult to single out individuals when everybody is chipping in along this run.Attention now turns to the upcoming fixtures in the week ahead as we travel to Sheffield on Thursday, followed by Belle Vue on Monday. These are trips where we recorded probably our most disappointing results of the season so far, back in early April, but we are in a much better position now and can travel up north with a great deal of confidence. Sheffield are currently experiencing their own problems, with former Stars Josh Pickering and Anders Rowe both likely to miss the fixture due to injury and we must capitalise on their misfortune, to hopefully turn it into more much needed points.We then travel to Belle Vue on Monday, in the hope that Ben Cook returns to the team. He rode in Poland on Sunday, scoring paid 13 from five riders, but ultimately pulled out of this week’s fixtures, on medical approval, a recurrence of that wrist injury. It goes without saying that we look forward to having Ben back, and hopefully more points on the road in the coming days. If this weekend taught us anything, it is that Speedway is still thriving on UK tracks.The SGP series took refuge at Belle Vue, Manchester over the weekend, and produced two of the greatest adverts for speedway you are likely to see in 2025. There were off-track issues around the event on Friday, but let’s not take anything away from the on-track action from both Friday and Saturday evening.Dan Bewley produced two of the best races you are likely to see anywhere to take the title on Friday, and this was followed by a quite superlative performance from five time World Champion, Bartosz Zmarzlik on Saturday evening.In terms of King’s Lynn representation at the meeting, there were probably mixed feelings across the two camps.Jan Kvech continued his consistent form on Friday, picking up a very useful 7 points and making the Last Chance Qualifier. He only managed three on Saturday, but did pick up a heat win, but couldn’t reach the heights of the previous evening. He currently sits 13th in the rankings at the halfway stage. Robert Lambert will most probably be scratching his head wondering what went wrong. I don’t think I have ever seen Rob work so hard for his 11 points on Friday, fighting from the back in most races.On Saturday, he looked a shadow of the man we have seen perform on the world stage in the last 18-24 months. He currently sits just outside the automatic qualification places for 2026, and will be hoping for an upturn in form as the series hits Gorzow in Poland this weekend.Just a reminder also, that the King’s Lynn Young Stars will be back in action next week at the Adrian Flux Arena as they take on the Leicester Fox Cubs in National Development League action on Wednesday, looking to solidify their position at the top of the standings.Please come out and support the lads in force, as they have the potential to be picking up silverware this season, and what a return to the third tier of speedway that would be for King’s Lynn.