Kerr and Kinsley bring Bears back to full strength
Tomorrow afternoon, the Redcar Agilia Bears will field a full 7-man team for the first time since the 2nd of June, with Lewis Kerr and Ryan Kinsley coming in to replace the injured Jordan Stewart and reserve Anders Rowe.
Kerr, who also rides for Premiership side Kings Lynn, will complete a powerhouse top 4 for the Bears, after becoming available on Thursday following the withdrawal of Eastbourne from the SGB Championship League this week. He joins the club on an average of 7.12, just 0.01 points lower than Jake Allen’s current average.
Kinsley started the season as Kings Lynn’s Rising Star and currently races for National Development League side Kent, where he is averaging 9.47 points per meeting. Kinsley was unlucky not to get a Championship spot in 2021, after finishing on a 3.17 average in his first season of professional racing back in 2019 with Scunthorpe. He will join Jordan Jenkins at reserve.
Unfortunately, this means that youngster Anders Rowe will leave the club, as the Bears promotion could not find a like-for-like replacement for Jordan Stewart after weeks of searching. With a play-off spot looking all but certain, the Bears’ management did not want to continue the season with a 6-man team.
Co-promoter Jitendra Duffill explained, “We have been searching for a replacement for Jordan Stewart since he informed us that he would not be returning to the side in 2021. Our preferred option was always a straight swap for Jordan, but we simply couldn’t find a rider that fitted the bill. We are in a very strong position for the play offs and are gunning for a league title, which is why we couldn’t pass up on the opportunity to sign Lewis Kerr when he became available.”
Duffill continued, “Unfortunately, as Lewis’ average is higher than Jordan’s, it meant that we had to release another rider to bring him in. After several long discussions between the current promotion, we made the difficult decision to release Anders Rowe, who has struggled to hit the form he showed earlier in the year for Premiership club Ipswich, particularly away from home where he has struggled to score in recent weeks. It’s simply a case of averages dictating, and this was a decision made to strengthen the team as a whole and to improve our chances of success at the business end of the season. We told Anders of our decision on Thursday to allow him to find another team before today’s transfer deadline, but didn’t want to announce until today as it wouldn’t have been fair on him to do it before. I contacted every club in the Championship on Thursday to help him get fixed up, and I’m pleased that he has been successful in doing so. We wish him all the best and thank him for his efforts this season.”
Talking about the new arrivals, Duffill said, “I’d like to welcome Lewis and Ryan to the club. With their addition, I believe we are a stronger side and are now capable of challenging for the league title. Lewis is a proven heat leader at this level and is scoring very well in the Premiership too. Ryan is a young rider with plenty of talent, and was really unfortunate to miss out on a Championship spot this year after a good first season with Scunthorpe. He has good equipment after buying 2 bikes from Robert Lambert at the start of the year and deserves his chance at this level – I’m confident he will do a good job for us at reserve. Both riders were ultra-keen to join us and can’t wait to make their debuts.”
Kerr and Kinsley will make their debuts for the Bears tomorrow (Sunday 29th August), when Redcar face the Berwick Bandits at the Media Prima Arena. The Bears will go 7 points clear of 3rd placed side Glasgow if they come away as victors on the day.