STOKE suffered a disappointing 36-53 defeat against the Mildenhall Fen Tigers in the Travel Plus National League at Loomer Road on Saturday night.
The A.R. Richards Potters provided only four races winners within the fifteen heats as the slick gating Fen Tigers dominated proceedings with only Max Clegg (3 wins) and returnee Rob Shuttleworth (1 win) and skipper Tony Atkin providing any real resistance to the visiting side. The trio scored 27 of the Potters 36 points as the Tigers opened-up an 18-12 lead after the opening five races before Clegg and Paul Burnett combined for a 4-2 in heat six to reduce the Tigers lead to four points.
The rest bite was short lived though as Ryan Kinsley and Drew Kemp gained a 4-2 in the following race before Kemp and Sam Bebee took a maximum 5-1 over Paul Burnett to give the Tigers a 19-29 lead after eight heats.
Stoke gained a 5-0 in heat eleven after Bebee and then Bailey both fell and were disqualified, the race being awarded to Shuttleworth and Joe Alcock to leave the Potters trailing by just five points.
The revival was short lived though as the Suffolk side then reeled off three 5-1 heat victories in the final four heats to give them all four league points over the Potters.
Potters co-team manager Adam Isherwood said “I’m very disappointed tonight, we were simply beaten by the better side. They were quick out of the starts and we just couldn’t back on terms with them and you can see why many people favour them for the league title this year. We lacked race winners tonight with only four in the fifteen races and you are not going to win meetings if you are not winning the races. On the plus side for us it was good to see Rob (Shuttleworth) getting amongst the points and hopefully that will give the lad some confidence, but overall, it was a very disappointing night for us and we have to move on and prepare for our next meeting and not let our heads get down.”
STOKE 36: Max Clegg 12, Rob Shuttleworth 8+1, Tony Atkin 7, Adam Extance 4+3, Joe Alcock 3+1, Paul Burnett 2, Josh Embleton 0. MILDENHALL 53: Ryan Kinsley 16+1, Danny Ayres 15+1, Drew Kemp 9+1, Matt Marson 5+2, Josh Bailey 5, Sam Bebee 3+2, Daniel Halsey r/r.