The message coming out from the Mildenhall Fen Tigers’, proudly sponsored by Manchetts Rescue & Recovery, camp is loud and clear – everyone is now counting the days (it’s 35 by the way!) and raring to go for the 2022 season. And it’s defending that hard fought National Development League [NDL] title which is top of the agenda!
This was very much the running theme at a packed West Row Village Hall on Saturday evening (5th. March) as the 2022 squad was formally introduced to the Fen Tigers’ fans at the ‘Meet The Riders’ event.
Opening up was Lee Chipchase on behalf of his fellow members of the club’s promotional consortium, who reflected back on last year’s amazing triumph – coming from behind to take the title with a spectacular run of victories to grab the club’s fifth league championship trophy,
“We really saw last year how Speedway success is achieved by a unit that functions as team that’s far more than a group of individuals and we can see that again with the group of riders we have put together to go on and seek to retain the title. I don’t believe we’ll be beaten by anyone at West Row and can pick up points as we did last term on the road and that’ll be enough on that basis to get us into the play offs. And we’ll see how we go from then”
Lee was keen to pay tribute to the club’s main team sponsors Manchetts Rescue & Recovery,
“They are always 100% behind us and 100% in the level of support they give us – asking us what we need, what the riders need and always delivering. I can say without doubt that we believe they are the most professional sponsors in this league.”
Next up it was an introduction of sorts to someone who’s been involved at the club for many years but now steps up to partner Malcolm Vasey as joint Team Manager, Jason Gardner.
First of all the veteran Speedway administrator Vasey paid tribute to his title-winning charges of 2021,
“I’ve been doing this Speedway team management job for well over 20 years now and never before have I had the privilege of being in charge of such an effective and well-balanced team. And as ever it’s a bit of a jigsaw working over the winter keeping riders, bringing others in to meet the new points limit and dealing with riders leaving but I believe, as Lee, has said that again we have a very solid team and that we will be incredibly difficult for anyone to beat at home and can certainly get points away from West Row too.”
Of his new co-manager Malcolm was fulsome in his praise,
“Jason has such great Speedway nous and will be a great asset to the club in this new role. I know I can’t go on for ever”, Malcolm went on, “and handing over the reins, as I will eventually do so, to Jason will be leaving the club in the safest of hands”
Jason told the fans,
”I’m very proud to be working alongside one of the most experienced team managers in the sport in Malcolm and to be stepping up to this role for the club I love. I see my task as building up and maintaining team spirit and we will be bouncing ideas off each other in this joint role. I really can’t wait to get started now!”
There are four riders back again from the triumphant 2020 squad and three new signings (though one is very much a returning favourite son of West Row)
The first rider up to be introduced to the Mildenhall faithful was one of the newcomers (strangely all three additions from last year rode in 2021 for the same NDL club, the Kent Royals), Josh Warren.
In Josh’s case, being a slightly late starter to the sport, the former Central Park-based club has been up until now his only side as, after racing MotoX and Grasstrack he only turned to the shale in the last two years as he explained,
“I started racing Speedway in 2019 but I was hooked on the sport from the start. I’ve been helped along the way by Danny King, who is a rider that my Dad sponsored and Danny has been a great mentor for me in my career to date”.
In addition to having King, the former British champion and a league & cup winner himself with the Fen Tigers in the early noughties, in his camp Josh also benefits from the support of another former league title winning Fen Tiger in Ritchie Hawkins and with such pit side support and a season’s racing behind him now, it’s no wonder that the 21-year-old from Peterborough was bullish in expressing his aim for this campaign, “To win the League again!” he exclaimed.
Next up to talk to the assembled fans was a returnee from the start of last year, albeit that he didn’t get to finish the 2021 campaign in the Fen Tigers’ septet, Luke Muff. The affable Yorkshireman has a trademark Tyke-characteristic of no nonsense and looks back on his experience of last year as ultimately benefitting him as he goes into his second season of NDL racing.
“Losing my team place mid-season was something I had to take on the chin – there’s never any point in taking your bat and ball home when things like happen in team sport and I felt that in my time in the side I’d really began to settle to this level of racing and was improving. So now I can really look forward to being back in as reserve and to go again this season”.
That contribution Luke did make to the Fen Tigers’ ultimate league title win was acknowledged on Saturday when, to the biggest ovation of the night, Mildenhall promoter Greg Palmer presented Luke with his league winners’ medal – something he’d not been able to pick up due to absence from the title run in.
A rider who picked up his medal on the occasion of the title clinching win up in Edinburgh last October is Elliot Kelly, back for a third season in the colours of the Fen Tigers. The teenager from the north-east finished 2021 in great form as a paid 11 points in that romp in the Scottish capital showed and he gave the audience a perceptive insight into the psyche of a young Speedway rider,
“Last year was a season of two halves for me really. The early weeks were a bit of a struggle but around halfway through the campaign I had something of an epiphany”.
The articulate youngster went on,
“I suddenly realised that it was the most important thing if I’m going to be a Speedway rider that I enjoy doing what I do – and that change of attitude, to predominately wanting to enjoy it suddenly resulted in me scoring more points”.
Like Warren, Kelly has a bona fide Fen Tigers legend in his corner giving him help and support,
“I was introduced to Jon Armstrong and he started giving me advice last year and his help has made an unbelievable difference – really what Jon has done has been getting me to change the way I ride rather than how the bike rides. My change in outlook made all the difference to me in the run in last year and resulted in me going home with a league winners medal and I aim to build on that in 2022”.
If West Row has become something of an adopted home for Kelly, then for Norfolk-born Sam Bebee it really is a fully-fledged home from home as he explained,
“I I’ve been racing here since I was 15 years of age – I’m now turned 21 and there is absolutely nowhere else I want to be. I’ve been racing MotoX over the winter to keep riding fit and training hard – I’m ready, the bikes are ready”.
And Bebee, who actually made his Fen Tigers’ debut back as long ago as 2016, knows the promise he’s always shown started to come to full fruition in the vital stages of the title run -in and is using that as his marker for the start of the forthcoming campaign,
“I scored paid 12 in our final home match last year as we beat the side who finished runners up to us in the end Berwick and then paid 13 in our absolutely vital win at Kent, so I was of course pleased with my contribution there and with a bigger fixture list this year with more teams and other competitions up for grabs, the way I look at it is the more meetings, the more time to improve”.
Returning to the West Row fold after having ridden over a dozen meetings in the Fen Tigers’ colours in 2017, is another 21-year-old, Alex Spooner. The rider from Essex has been with Kent for the past three seasons and is happy to be returning to Mildenhall for the 2022 season,
“I regard the West Row track like a second home for me – having started up here riding as a junior in the Midland Development League and of course having had a previous spell in the senior Mildenhall side too. I love the place to be honest and it was the easiest decision to say yes when I was offered a place in the side for this season.”
Sporting what’s often an awkward middle order average of 6.50 (awkward in the sense that points limit requirements sometimes see riders on that kind of average squeezed out), Alex is delighted to be in from the off after a frustrating start in 2021,
“I was without a team this time last year and in fact one of my few meetings was doing well in the GB Under 21 semi at Mildenhall. Once my league season did get going I really felt I showed my full potential and I’m determined that this season will be the one where it all falls into place”.
Talking of the GB U21s there’s no rider in that competition’s long history with more experience of the Final than the Fen Tigers’ returning number one, another rider hailing from Essex: Jason Edwards.
Entering his third season with the Fen Tigers, Jason was the youngest ever GB U21 finalist when aged just 15 and will be looking to make his fifth final when Mildenhall open the home season by staging the semi final on April 10th.
“It’s ideal for me to be opening the season with this event on my home track – though the way I look at things is that any meeting is a good one. I hope to qualify and this time make more progress in the Final itself- having narrowly missed out on getting to the title-deciding race in 2021”.
Edwards has a huge affinity with the Suffolk Fens club as he explains,
“It’s a strong love affair I have with Mildenhall – I’ve loved every year I’ve been at the club and I feel I’ve been getting better and better. I can’t wait to get going – I’m literally counting the days!”
As one of the great hopes of the vibrant Young British Lions Speedway scene, Jason has recently benefitted from the Training Camp held at Bicester,
“It was brilliant – and I am learning such a lot from being involved with the Young Lions British international set up. To have someone like three times World Champion Jason Crump in our corner, bringing us down to earth by telling us what we’re doing wrong (!), it can only benefit us all.
“We are a tight knit group in the Young GB set up but I can tell you we are all trying hard to beat each other and to get to be the best”.
That sense of friendly rivalry will be mirrored at his NDL club this term too, as it’s sure to be a close run thing between Edwards and the Fen Tigers’ skipper Ryan Kinsley as to who ends up in the number one race jacket.
For the 23-year-old Kinsley it’s a return to the track where he really first made his name as one of the stars of NDL racing and indeed a return to the role as Fen Tigers’ team captain.
“This will be my third season riding for Mildenhall and, as it always is, the club is absolutely top of my list of where I want to ride – no matter what other offers I might get.”
The rider from Norfolk spent last season in the NDL with the Kent Royals and whilst on a northern tour suffered the gut wrenching ordeal of having his van stolen and losing all of his machinery to thieves. The campaign to help him out stretched across the whole sport but leading the way were contributions of support and money from the West Row public where he’s always been such a fans’ favourite,
“I was totally overwhelmed by the support Mildenhall supporters gave me and I’m eternally grateful to them and all others across the Speedway world for allowing me to keep going”
That awful incident behind him, the business in hand is leading his troops into battle to defend that NDL title,
“I’m over the moon to be appointed as team captain – I’ve got the experience having done it before here and last season at Kent and am relishing the challenge. As I am, of course, to have the number one race jacket – me and Jason have ridden together before, we know our strengths and how to ride together, how to look after each other and how to get those vital 5-1s in heats 13 and 15!”
And in closing proceedings the new skipper told of his other personal aim for the season back at Mildenhall, “I want that track record!”.
The season gets underway at West Row on Sunday April 10th. with the semi final of the GB U21s and the team are first in action versus a Young GB side in the Poultec Challenge on Easter Sunday 17th. April. Meetings at Mildenhall Speedway this season beginning at 3pm.
