Kent Iwade Garage Royals’ league title hopes for this season were brought to an end at Central Park on Tuesday night going down to champions-elect, Mildenhall Fen Tigers.
Losing by just a single point, 44-45 was sadly enough to finish off any lingering hopes of a first ever National League title for the hosts and barring an impossibly unlikely massive defeat in their final match the Suffolk side can celebrate a fourth title at this level.
Despite the closeness of the reverse, going down to a thrilling last heat decider, the calamitous defeat was in many ways sealed in the opening second of the first race – when teenaged prodigy Vinnie Foord looped badly as the tapes rose, landing heavily on his back. Severely winded and with bruising to his lower back it was the end of Foord’s night meaning his rides needed then to be shared out between the two Royals’ reserves Josh Warren and Jacob Clouting which proved decisive when the Fen Tigers had in their ranks an outstanding performance from their own number six, Sam Bebee who produced the best performance of his own fledgling career, scoring paid 13.
Dan Gilkes stormed to victory in the rerun heat one and that set the marker for an utterly dominant showing by the NL’s top rider who was to go through the card with five wins for a peerless full maximum. The second heat was the first piece of bad luck for the hosts: in a messy second bend, Clouting found nowhere to go and crashed into the air barrier – just a second before the ref put on the red lights for the inevitable exclusion of the Kent man, the hapless Elliot Kelly also tumbled off. The result, a double disqualification and Bebee’s win in the rerun put Mildenhall into an early lead. Not for long though, with one time Fen Tiger Ryan Kinsley storming to a heat three win and Alex Spooner continuing on from his heroics of last week coming from behind to join his skipper for a 5-1. It was sadly though to be the home side’s only heat maximum as the visitors stabilised with their top two men Jason Edwards and Jordan Jenkins winning the next two heats and despite Gilkes and Mulford getting to the chequered flag first they were only to secure drawn heats, meaning the Royals’ entered heat 8 just the three points ahead.
With the Rider Replacement facility at number two allowing the visitors to utilise Edwards in the crucial mid-way point heat, the wily Mildenhall team boss Malcolm Vasey doubled the difficulty for the depleted Royals by bringing in the buzzing Bebee and stormed to a 5-1.
The lead was yo-yoing between the two protagonists now – Kinsley & Spooner regained the advantage again for the hosts (Spooner so unlucky not to get past Edwards for an extra point), only for Jenkins and fellow 2019 Kent Kings’ rider Nathan Ablitt to combine to push Mildenhall back in front in heat 11. Heat 12 and a fall by Bebee saw a 4-2 to the Royals and with Gilkes winning heat 13 it meant Kent were in the box seat with two heats remaining, leading 39-38. Then, calamity. So keen to get out of the traps fast in heat 14, knowing he faced a considerable challenge from Ablitt and Bebee, Spooner went a fraction early and his helmet caught the tapes meaning it was a horribly prohibitive 15 metres handicap in the rerun. There was little hope and so it transpired, meaning that a side who’d only led by the narrowest of margins previously now had the extremely handy buffer of a three points lead going into the last heat decider.
Heat 15 had all the drama one can expect from such a crucial denouncement. There was an awful coming together on the first bend when Edwards locked up and took out both Kent riders sending them crashing heavily into the air fence. Amazingly, battered and bruised they both emerged from the carnage and with an inexplicably irate Edwards disqualified from the rerun it was now two versus one for the 5-1 which would keep the Royals’ league title hopes alive. Sadly though that one was the ever plucky Jordan Jenkins and it was perhaps fitting that the likeable lad who lives and breathes Mildenhall Speedway took them to the victory and cusp of league success by splitting Gilkes & Kinsley to see the Fen Tigers home by 45-44.
With the win, Mildenhall moved level on match points with previously top of the table Berwick Bullets on 22 each but the Suffolk side are on a points difference of plus 58 as opposed to Berwick’s plus 15, meaning that the Fen Tigers would need to lose their one remaining NL match 66-23 to be denied the title – no wonder there was confidence in their victory celebrations at the end!
Next up for the Royals will be two more ‘home’ matches next week: the final Central Park meeting next Tuesday (26/10) when Belle Vue Colts visit and then on a day yet to be announced, it’s that visit to Leicester as a neutral venue to take on Armadale Devils.
