WEYMOUTH Wildcats suffered a 25-11 defeat at the hands of table-topping Kent Kestrels in their latest Southern Development League meeting in Plymouth.

The Wildcats had lost 22-13 at Kent in the reverse fixture, but found a strong Kestrels line-up in fine form during the encounter at St. Boniface Arena.

Luke Woodhull, who for the Wildcats as their designated national league rider, top-scored with five points, while Paul Bowen claimed four with Russell Barnett and Mick Sutton each scoring one.

After the meeting, Wildcats co-promoter Martin Peters admitted it was a “hard” night for his riders.

He told Echosport: “They did try their best but it was always going to be hard in my opinion. They all put the maximum effort in, it’s just unfortunate that Kent had two really good riders there.

“Paul put up a little bit of a fight and kept them honest, Luke did alright and got a few seconds. If we could have swapped it round we maybe would have got a few more points.

“It was just really hard because they had Henry (Atkins) and Anders (Rowe).

Kent were forced into a double change before the meeting began. Bradley Andrews was scheduled to ride but pulled out and his replacement William O’Keefe suffered a heavy crash in the first meeting of the night, electing to withdraw.

That meant that the highly-rated Atkins stepped in, a move that prompted Peters to glow about the quality of riders available to the Kestrels.

He said: “It’s strength in depth. They have got certain riders who ride for them who are a little bit above the standard we have.

“We are allowed two national league riders. Us and Exeter don’t have those two riders but all the other teams do. They tend to be very committed to riding these free rounds and are willing to travel down.

“James Laker travelled down from the other side of Kent, so they are very committed riders.”

Peters also praised the mentality of his riders, insisting that all they want to do was ride as frequently as possible.

“They just want to go out there and ride as much as they can. The more riding you do, the better you get and the better standard you race the more it improves you,” he said.

Next week Weymouth have another home fixture against Plymouth Demons, which will again be contested at Plymouth’s St. Boniface Arena.