Hoping it’ll be ‘Win up north’ this weekend are the Mildenhall Fen Tigers – proudly sponsored by Manchetts Rescue and Recovery- as the team head to Edinburgh on Friday night (22nd.); and then on Sunday, it’s the National Development League [NDL] Riders’ Championship at Workington (24th.).
The trip to the West Lothian home of the Edinburgh Monarchs Academy is Mildenhall’s penultimate NDL fixture of the season and the side will be determined to get a morale boosting win as the ideal preparation for a hat trick of matches against last season’s League & Cup winners Leicester which includes of course a two legged Cup Final.
No time to dwell on that though with the serious business of going for all three NDL points at an Armadale circuit where the Fen Tigers have tasted away win glory in both of the last two campaigns.
There’s no doubt that the Scottish side are stronger this term but team boss Jason Gardner is confident his charges have the ammunition at their disposal to get the job done on Friday.
“We have a very solid top five and by pulling together I’m sure we can deliver just the result we need to keep pressure on Oxford who have two matches like us to go in the chase for the Play Offs. It’s certainly a long shot that we can make the top two but a win on Friday will certainly show both Oxford and our great rivals Leicester that we really mean business.”
Gardner has been forced to scour around for talent to fill the two reserves slots with neither William Richardson (previously ever-present) and new signing Sam Woolley available for the trip north of the border,
“We’ve got Sam Ward and youngster Laylen Richardson coming in for us. Ward is a name that will perhaps be familiar to our fans from his time with both Stoke and then Buxton in 2014. He’s 25 years of age now and is making very determined steps at a Speedway comeback after a number of years away from the sport. I saw him riding at Scunthorpe this weekend just gone and he looked promising I must say. Laylen is a rookie by comparison, rides second halves at his local track Workington and we are grateful that he’s stepping up and helping us out on Friday. It’s always good and very much the Mildenhall way, to give untried youngsters a chance”.
The home side have one of the NDL’s main men at number one, in the form of a previous GB U19 Champion and former NDL Riders’ title winner, Max Clegg. Clegg is backed up by two charismatic Aussies, Jacob Hook and Dayle Wood and completing an imposing top four is their skipper, a former league title winner with Mildenhall and also a one-time winner of the third tier Riders’ Championship, Adam Roynon.
Talking of that annual individual event, this year it’s debuting at new circuit Northside in Workington on Sunday (24th) with Mildenhall’s top two of skipper Lee Complin and number one, Alfie Bowtell carrying the Fen Tigers’ colours.
The pairing have every cause for optimism as they’ve impressed at the Cumbrian track this term: scoring paid 14 and 13 points respectively when Mildenhall won there in June.
As well as the aforementioned former champions from the Edinburgh club, there’s a two-time winner in Kent’s Ben Morley , the reigning NDL Pairs champs, the Thompson brothers Dan & Joe from Leicester Lion Cubs, home rider Connor Bailey (who’s already taken the British U21 crown this term) and of course the defending NDLR Champion, former Fen Tiger Jordan Jenkins of Oxford. It’s looking like the strongest field for many years and is sure to be a thriller.