Fen Tigers do double on the Islanders

MILDENHALL Fen Tigers completed an impressive double victory over the Isle of Wight Islanders at West Row yesterday; first in a National League Play Off Semi Final tie with a 58-36 shoreline which was followed by a 53-39 shoreline in the following National Trophy fixture.

Tigers’ guest, Jason Garrity, was unstoppable in both meetings. He roared to a five race paid maximum in the first and a four race paid maximum in the second. For the Islanders reserve, Adam Ellis, lived up to all the pre-meeting hype scoring 11+1 from six rides in his first meeting at West Row and followed this by top scoring again for the visitors with 14 from seven rides in the next.

Mildenhall started the Playoff Semi Final meeting in a determined fashion and had built up a 14-point lead by heat seven. The Islanders nominated Adam Ellis for a tactical ride in heat eight but the fast-gating Joe Jacobs ensured that only two points were gained by winning for the home side. Paul Starke came out for the visitors’ second tactical ride in the next heat but he was also denied a win, courtesy of Stefan Nielsen leading from the tapes for Mildenhall. The heat advantages continued to flow for the Tigers and by heat thirteen they were twenty points ahead. Adam Ellis pegged this back by two for the Islanders by taking his second heat win of the afternoon in heat fourteen with his teammate coming in third. Super guest Jason Garrity & skipper Lewis Blackbird finished off the job for Mildenhall by roaring from the tapes in the last heat to score a maximum heat win, giving the Tigers a twenty two point lead to take to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday for the second leg.

After men & machines had been rested the second meeting started with Mildenhall taking the lead from the very first heat courtesy of a 5-1 from Jason Garrity & Joe Jacobs. This time around the visitors hit back quickly with a 4-2 of their own in the reserves race with Adam Ellis looking more comfortable & quicker as he completed each race. Heat three saw a high-speed crash on the back straight when Stefan Nielsen picked up some drive before colliding hard with the solid fence while chasing Ben Hopwood down. After treatment by the paramedics and the home fans expecting the worse, after the ambulance was called on to the track, Stefan rose to his feet and made his own way back to the pits. His bike looked a bit modified after the impact but Stefan decided that he was able to go on and after looking tentative on his next outing he stuck to it as always and went on to take three race wins, including heat fifteen. After the meeting he was heard to say “It was so numb I couldn’t feel anything so I thought I may as well carry on riding”.

The re-run of heat three resulted in a shared heat and the next two went the same way. Jason Garrity & Joe Jacobs combined for another 5-1 in heat six, which gave the Tigers a six-point lead. Again the Islanders hit back with a 4-2 of their own and with heats seven & eight shared it was proving much harder for the Tigers to pull away in this fixture. Heat ten helped turn it their way with the dynamic duo of Jason Garrity & Joe Jacobs banging in their third 5-1, quickly followed by a 4-2 in the next courtesy of skipper Lewis Blackbird & Gareth Isherwood. There was now a ten-point gap so the Islanders nominated Steve Jones for a tactical ride but he was up against Stefan Nielsen who didn’t disappoint by winning from the gate limiting the damage to a two-point gain. Heat thirteen saw Jason Garrity round off his afternoon with another 5-1, this time partnered by Tigers skipper Lewis Blackbird. As in the previous meeting the visitors scored a 4-2 in the penultimate heat and heat fifteen saw a 5-1 to Mildenhall with Joe Jacobs & Stefan Nielsen winning very comfortably from the tapes.

After a very long but successful afternoon/evening co-promoter Chris Louis said, “I’m very pleased with both results. Jason Garrity proved to be an excellent guest, not only for his points scoring but also for the way he looked out for his team mate in all his races. Joe Jacobs also deserves a mention; he had a very disappointing night at Rye House yesterday but he put that behind him and rode exceptionally well this afternoon. Having said that both meetings saw a great team effort with everyone in the team playing their part. I’m not sure how Stefan continued after his crash in heat three but he does seem to bounce back very quickly, as we have seen in the past. I’d also like to apologise for the delays in the first meeting caused by the tapes not working as expected and we will be looking to make sure this is dealt with before the next home meeting. Have we got a big enough lead to take to the Isle of Wight on Tuesday? It sounds comfortable but if Adam (Ellis) is riding at reserve the team will have to put in another big effort to make sure we progress through to the final”.

National League PlayOff Semi Final

Mildenhall Fen Tigers 58

Jason Garrity 13+2, Lewis Blackbird 13+1, Stefan Nielsen 11+1, Joe Jacobs 9+1, Dan Halsey 7+1, Gareth Isherwood 4, Ryan Terry-Daley 1+1

Team Manager: Robert Henry

Isle of Wight Islanders 36

Adam Ellis 11+1, Paul Starke 8+1, Danny Warwick 6, Danny Stoneman 4, Steve Jones 4, Ben Hopwood 3

Team Managers: Kevin Shepherd & Chris Hunt

National Trophy

Mildenhall Fen Tigers 53

Joe Jacobs 12+3, Jason Garrity 11+1, Lewis Blackbird 9+1, Stefan Nielsen 9, Dan Halsey 8, Gareth Isherwood 3, Ryan Terry-Daley 1+1

Team Manager: Robert Henry

Isle of Wight Islanders 39

Adam Ellis 14, Ben Hopwood 9, Steve Jones 6+1, Danny Stoneman 5+1, Paul Starke 3+2, Danny Warwick 2+1

Team Managers: Kevin Shepherd & Chris Hunt