The Warriors were on a revenge mission as they headed to Suffolk to take on Mildenhall in the reverse fixture from last Thursday’s league defeat at Smallbrook, but again factors combined to hamper their quest for more league points.
Both sides were below full strength. The Warriors needed a guest for Georgie Wood who was still troubled by back and neck pain and drafted in Leicester’s Danyon Hume as cover whilst Danno Verge was also missing as he completed a mandatory concussion suspension so the Rider Replacement facility was used. The home side were missing heat leader Jason Edwards who was riding in the European Under 19 final with both Henry Atkins and Aaron Butcher unavailable. There places were taken by Nathan Stoneman and James Chattin with Rider Replacement for Edwards.
As early as heat one, both sides suffered more misfortune. Hume was leading the race until the last two bends when he spun leaving the Fen Tigers top man Danny Ayres nowhere to go. Hume was rightly excluded, the Fen Tigers awarded a 5-1 heat advantage, however showman Ayres was in need of hospital treatment for what has now been confirmed as a broken tibula.
His injury and absence clearly acted as a motivator to his remaining team-mates as Stoneman, Charlie Brooks and Matt Marson chose this day to step up to the plate and rescue the Fen Tigers from a tricky situation. The Warriors were no doubt hoping to capitalise on Ayres misfortune and as usual skipper Ben Morley took the fight to the home side with his fifteen points being just reward for a busy seven ride stint. Special mention also to Connor King riding at a track only twelve miles away from his home in Brandon. The mechanical problems of Thursday night were sorted by club sponsor John Carpenter and with a properly functioning carburettor a paid twelve score was the best in his National League career to date. Whilst Chad Wirtzfeld, Scott Campos and Chris Widman fought hard with little to show for their efforts, one really frustrated man was Danyon Hume who worked hard for the few points he got, but suffered two falls that led to exclusions at the wrong time.
After the meeting Warriors co-promoter Barry Bishop said, “Firstly let me send our best wishes to Danny. He has been in the form of his life and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. We all hope he makes a speedy recovery.
As to the match itself, I thought we had a chance of getting something out of it, but the Mildenhall youngsters stepped up and if the rain had stayed away we might have been able to have worked a better result from heat 13 to give us momentum for the last two, however it was not to be but we can celebrate more great work again from Ben and a magnificent day for Connor who fully deserves a huge amount of praise, not only for today which was great, but for his terrific commitment to the Warriors this season so far”.
Scorers:
Fen Tigers: Danny Ayres 3, Matt Marson 11+3, Rider Replacement for Jason Edwards, Charlie Brooks 15+2, Nathan Stoneman 15, James Chattin 0 and Elliot Kelly 6+1.
Warriors: Danyon Hume 5, Chad Wirtzfeld 2+1, Scott Campos 5+1, Rider Replacement for Danno Verge, Ben Morley 15, Chris Widman 2+1 and Connor King 11+1.
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