STOKE A.R. Richards Potters will take a ten-point lead into the second leg of their National League KO Cup Quarter Final after defeating the Mildenhall Fen Tigers 50-40 at Loomer road on Saturday night.

The Suffolk side took the lead in heat two with a 4-2 heat advantage from Danno Verge and Luke Whitmore over Alex Spooner after Shaun Tedham had been excluded for falling. Stoke hit straight back though with a maximum 5-1 from David Wallinger and Ryan Terry-Daley over former Potter Jon Armstrong and Jordan Jenkins who fell while leading the race to give the Potters a 10-8 lead.

A series of drawn heats saw both sides gaining race winner, but the Fen Tigers struck in heat ten with a 5-1 from Armstrong and Jenkins who came from last to second firstly picking off Wallinger before taking Davey to give the Tigers a 31-29 lead.

The Potters though clawed themselves back level with a 4-2 from skipper Luke Priest and Spooner over Mountain to leave the tight affair at 33-33 with four heats remaining.

Stoke then showed the power in the latter heats that had been missing in previous meetings at firstly Priest and Davey gained a maximum 5-1 over Mountain and Halsey and this was followed up with a second maximum race way on the bounce as Wallinger and Spooner took the flag ahead of Danno Verge to leave the Potters leading the meeting 46-38.

The Potters had choice of gate positions in the final race and took gates 1 and 3 and Davey took the victory with Mountain having come from last to second taking both Priest and Armstrong to give the Potters a 4-2 race advantage and a 50-40 victory on the night with a ten-point lead to take to West Row next month.

Potters team manager Malcolm Vasey commented “I’m pleased we have a 10-point lead to take into the second leg at Mildenhall. It was a tight affair throughout the meeting and tonight we finished very strongly with two 5-1’s and a 4-2. The lads all battled hard and we now look forward to the meeting at West Row where we will need to be at our best. We will take a lot of confidence from this win tonight and look to continue this into our next meeting which is against the high-flying Eastbourne Eagles next Saturday.”

STOKE 50: Luke Priest 15, Mitchell Davey 11+3, Ryan Terry-Daley 10+2, David Wallinger 9+1, Alex Spooner 5+1, Shaun Tedham 0, Tony Atkin r/r.
MILDENHALL 40: Connor Mountain 11, Dan Halsey 10, Jon Armstrong 8, Danno Verge 7+3, Jordan Jenkins 3+2, Lewis Whitmore 1, Luke Ruddick r/r.