On an afternoon of scintillating Speedway in the Spring sunshine, there was a sensational last heat victory for the West Row faithful to salute as the Mildenhall DJS Fen Tigers - proudly sponsored by Manchetts Rescue and Recovery - secured a 45 points to 43 victory over fellow National Development League [NDL] title contenders Oxford Chargers.
Twice the Fen Tigers’ top pairing of Alfie Bowtell and inspirational skipper Lee Complin came to the rescue with incredible 5-1s in heats 13 and 15 to secure the most dramatic of narrow victories.
Going into the always crucial heat 13, the visitors led by four and with at that point undefeated Ryan Kinsley (a former Mildenhall man of course and specialist around the West Row circuit) and one of the NDL’s top men in Joe Thompson lining up for Oxford, it looked the tallest of orders to keep the Chargers at bay. But when the going gets tough there’s no pairing any side in this division any Team Manager would want more than Bowtell and Complin. Alfie took the inside line coming out of a manic first two bends whilst Complin went for a gap which no one else would’ve even contemplated as a possible route through, to split the Chargers’ pairing and the two Mildenhall heat leaders stormed to a 5-1.
That levelled the match at 38-38 but there was still a mountain to climb when a recurrent electrical fault on Arran Butcher’s bike saw him unable to finish heat 14 and the visitors reprised their lead, this time two points with just the nominated riders’ race left. This time rib injury victim Kinsley was rested but another former Fen Tigers’ man and the visitors’ equal top scorer on the day, Henry Atkins was paired with Thompson seeking to secure a final heat parity to take match victory. Bowtell and Complin were having none of it though – storming into an unassailable maximum position before Atkins looped out of the race with Thompson about to repeat his heat 13 retirement and to the victors went the spoils.
The meeting had begun with some last minute adjustments to what the ref felt was a less than satisfactory pits gate and, with reigning NDL individual Riders’ Champion, Jordan Jenkins out with concussion for the visitors (Thompson being his ‘Guest’ replacement) and much vaunted Aussie Luke Killeen also a late absentee after a Friday night crash at Belle Vue, many might have expected the floodgates to open after the homesters stormed into a 9-2 lead after just two heats – William Richardson contributing to his first 5-1 in Fen Tigers’ colours in heat two.
But the plucky Oxford outfit were not going to surrender easily – and two successive 5-1 for the visitors in heats four and five turned things back in their favour. The previously near immaculate Bowtell rearing up and crashing into Kinsley in heat six, coming hot on the heels of an equally uncharacteristic fall and exclusion for Complin meant at a stroke the hosts were three behind.
A 5-0 in heat eight courtesy of Josh Warren & Butcher steadied the ship but by heat 13 Oxford had built themselves back into a highly promising position (Bowtell suffering his first on track third place of the season behind Atkins and the lively looking Jody Scott in a shock heat 10 maximum reverse) before the exciting denouncement inspired by the Fen Tigers super-hot pairing.
Complin celebrated by diving into the crowd – the showman taking the high fives of exultation from his devoted fans and spoke with great emotion of what was an incredible comeback.
“We never gave up and when our backs were against the wall we clubbed together as a team. Oxford deserve a great deal of credit for their part in the match – they are a very good side. It was great to do it for our fans who have been terrific”.
The next opportunity to keep the 100% home record going sees Belle Vue Colts (also highly fancied as major opponents for the 2023 NDL title) visiting on June 4th. – and by then the Fen Tigers will have tested their mettle against the Mancunians up at the National Speedway Stadium in their first away NDL match of the season on Friday 26th. May.
Mildenhall DJS Fen Tigers 45
Alfie Bowtell 3, FX, 1, 3, 3 = 10
Josh Warren 1, 2, 3, 0 = 6
Ben Trigger 0, 0, 2, 2 = 4
George Congreve 3, 1, 1’, 2 = 7+1
Lee Complin F, 3, 2, 2’, 2’ = 9+2
William Richardson 2’, 0, 0 = 2+1
Arran Butcher 3, 1, 2’, 1’, EF = 7+2
Oxford Chargers 43
Joe Thompson [G] 2, 3, 3, R, 1 = 9
Jacob Clouting 0, 2’, F, 1 = 3+1
Henry Atkins 2, 2, 3, 3, F = 10
Jody Scott 1’, 1’, 2’, 3 = 7+3
Ryan Kinsley 3, 3, 3, 1 = 10
Sam Woods FX, 2’, X, X, 1 = 3+1
Jacob Fellows FX, 1, 0 = 1
Heat details
1 Bowtell, Thompson, Warren, Clouting 50.5 [4-2]
2 (rerun twice) Butcher, Richardson, Fellows (fell exc.), Woods (fell exc.) 53.8 [9-2]
3 Congreve, Atkins, Scott, Trigger 51.3 [12-5]
4 (stpd; awarded) Kinsley, Woods, Butcher, Complin (fell) no time [13-10]
5 Thompson, Clouting, Congreve, Trigger 51.6 [1-15]
6 (rerun) Kinsley, Warren, Fellows, Bowtell (fell exc.) 52.1 [16-19]
7 Complin, Atkins, Scott, Richardson 51.2 [19-22]
8 Warren, Butcher, Woods (fell, pshd home/exc. as race stpd), Clouting (fell) 52.8 [24-22]
9 Kinsley, Trigger, Congreve, Fellows 51.4 [27-25]
10 Atkins, Scott, Bowtell, Warren 51.5 [28-30]
11 Thompson, Complin, Clouting, Richardson 52.9 [30-34]
12 (rerun) Atkins, Trigger, Butcher, Woods (exc.UR) 51.5 [33-37]
13 Bowtell, Complin, Kinsley, Thompson (ret.) 51.6 [38-38]
14 (rerun) Scott, Congreve, Woods, Butcher (EF) 52.3 [40-42]
15 (stpd; awarded) Bowtell, Complin, Thompson, Atkins (fell) no time [45-43]
