STOKE suffered a 60-29 defeat at the hands of league leaders Mildenhall in the Travel Plus National League at the West Row Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
The Potters were 20-3 down after the opening four heats and lost reserve Joe Alcock with a broken collarbone after a collision in the second heat which saw his partner Tim Colley excluded resulting in a Tigers 5-0.
It wasn’t until heat five that saw a drawn heat the Potters started to half the Tigers as Connor Coles and Adam Extance followed home skipper Jordan Jenkins home. A further drawn a couple of races later saw Rob Shuttleworth and David Wallinger fill the minor placing behind Danny Ayres but the league leaders continued to pile on the misery for the Potters with Mildenhall leading 43-16 after ten heats. A couple of further heat advantages from Ayres and Matt Marson (5-1) and then Josh Bailey and Sam Bebee over Shuttleworth (4-2) left the Loomer road club trailing 52-19 after twelves races.
Max Clegg swapped his bike for his fourth ride and promptly took a comfortable victory from Ayres with Coles holding Drew Kemp at bay for the Potters first heat advantage of the afternoon a 4-2, but the Fen Tigers hit back with a 4-2 from Jenkins and Marson over Wallinger before Clegg took his second race win of the afternoon beating Ryan Kinsley with Stoke skipper Shuttleworth finishing third for a Potters 4-2 advantage.
Potters team manager Malcolm Vasey declared “I’m very proud of how the lads battled throughout the meeting we got off to a really poor start but despite being well down they kept battling away and in the latter heats started to come good and got a few points on the board as the defeat could well have been a lot heavier than it finally was. Most teams have come here this season and had 60 scored against them and I have no doubt that Mildenhall will win the National League title this season. We also unfortunately lost Joe Alcock in heat two which did not help us and it looks as though Joe is now out for the season and we wish him well.”
MILDENHALL 60: Ryan Kinsley 12+2, Jordan Jenkins 11+1, Danny Ayres 11, Josh Bailey 8+1, Sam Bebee 6+2, Matt Marson 6+1, Drew Kemp 6. STOKE 29: Max Clegg 9, Rob Shuttleworth 7+1, David Wallinger 5+1, Adam Extance 4+1, Connor Coles 4, Tim Colley 0, Joe Alcock 0.
