With summer finally arriving in Suffolk, the Fen Tigers scorched to a 57-38 victory against the visiting Buxton ‘Hitmen’.

With summer finally arriving in Suffolk, the Fen Tigers scorched to a 57-38 victory against the visiting Buxton ‘Hitmen’.

Early signs though, were that this was not going to be plain sailing, with first Buxton’s Charles Wright winning Heat 1, followed by Fen Tigers Liam Rumsey and Jon Armstrong suffering bike problems when clear leaders in Heats 2 & 3 respectively.

From then on the Fen Tigers upped the pressure with two 4-2’s and three 5-1’s in the next six heats to take a 36-20 lead after Heat 9. A fine burst of speed from Stefan Nielsen took him from third to first down the back straight in Heat 10 and with Aaron Baseby tucking into third the lead increased to 18 points. Visiting manager Jack Lee wasted no time placing the black and white helmet colour onto number one Charles Wright in Heat 11, and he was duly rewarded as Wright stormed to victory ahead of Mildenhall captain Dan Halsey. The excitement increased a notch in Heat 12 when the flying Josh Bates came from last to first in just two bends and that was followed in the re-run of Heat 13 with Halsey extracting revenge on Wright with a fine pass to take victory after Nielsen had crashed out in the first running of the Heat.

With Mildenhall 15 points ahead going into Heat 15 Robert Henry called upon unbeaten Bates and Captain Halsey and they didn’t let their Team Manager down, Halsey gating ahead of Wright whilst Bates bided his time before executing a smooth pass under Wright on lap three to claim his first ever maximum.

Team Manager Robert Henry was pleased with the afternoon’s work.

“Josh showed today that as his experience grows so does his patience and we look forward to many more performances like today. With Jon and Stefan both having difficult afternoons, we needed the other lads to step up and they certainly did, Dan Halsey was excellent too today and it was pleasing to see Nathan Stoneman looking like he was on the way back following his recent rest from the team. I am sure as he gets sharper he will get back to his best and today was a step in the right direction”

There is no home meeting next Sunday as the Fen Tigers travel to Buxton for the return National Trophy fixture. The next home meeting is on Sunday 16th June when the National League ‘new boys’ Kent ‘Kings’ are the visitors.

Today’s scorers -

Mildenhall – Nielsen 7+1 (4 riders), Baseby 7 (4), Bates 14+1 (5), Armstrong 4+2 (4), Halsey 14 (5), Rumsey 5+2 (4) and Stoneman 6 (4)

Buxton – Wright 12 (incl 6pt TR) (5 rides), Govier 1 (4), Blacklock R/R, McKinna 9 (6), Atkin 4+1 (4), Woolley 3+1 and Williamson 9+1 (incl 4pt TR) (6)

Mildenhall Speedway will be holding a training day on Saturday 22nd June from 10.30 – 15.30. Full details are available on the club website or call 07767460907 to book.