AFTER 15 tense and exciting heats, Mildenhall emerged as the victors of tightly-contested meeting with local rivals Rye House. Coming off the back of two successive away wins, against Somerset and Newport, Rye House fans turned out in force to cheer on t

AFTER 15 tense and exciting heats, Mildenhall emerged as the victors of tightly-contested meeting with local rivals Rye House.

Coming off the back of two successive away wins, against Somerset and Newport, Rye House fans turned out in force to cheer on their team.

Heat one went the way of the Tigers with Shaun Tacey roaring to victory and Mario Jirout finding a way past Luke Bowen to take third place, giving a 4-2 heat advantage.

The second heat saw Tai Woffinden withdrawn from the meeting. After losing control of his bike coming out of the fourth bend, he clattered into the safety fence, taking Jason King with him. Woffinden withdrew on the advice of the paramedics because of blurred vision, but escaped serious injury.

The visitors took the lead in the re-run with a King engine failure costing Mildenhall a point and giving Rye House a 3-2 heat advantage. Rye House then looked to be pulling away when Chris Neath found a way past Kyle Legault in heat five, to make it 13-16, before a Stuart Robson engine failure gifted the Fen Tigers a 5-1 in heat six and a brilliant first corner by Tom P Madsen left the line open for King to follow him home for a second Mildenhall 5-1.

Two successive Rye House 4-2s cut Mildenhall's lead to just a point, but a second Tacey and Jirout 5-1 put the Fen Tigers back in control.

After a thrilling heat 13, with Stuart Robson squeezing past Jirout and the two Mildenhall riders just holding off the challenge from Chris Neath to claim a 3-3, the scores were 40-37 in favour of the home side.

A tapes-to-flag victory for King in heat 14 perfectly set up a last-heat decider and a gripping end to what had been a fantastic meeting.

Mildenhall just needed to beat one of the Rye House riders to claim the victory.

Things looked to be wrapped up as Tacey and Madsen rode to keep Robson behind them, while Neath took the lead until a Tacey error allowed Robson through into third.

But Madsen, Mildenhall's Danish No. 5, held his second place superbly to secure a Fen Tigers' victory.

Mildenhall are at home to Newport, on Saturday, at 2.30pm.