Mick’s away to fine start

Rye House 50

Mildenhall 41

Saturday

The Suffolk-Herts Trophy (2nd leg - Rye House win 97-84 on aggregate)

Mildenhall promoter Mick Horton declared himself satisfied with his team's first away performance of the season.

The ASL Freight Fen Tigers pushed reigning Premier League champions Rye House all the way in the second leg of the Suffolk-Herts Trophy, on Saturday.

Mildenhall led after six heats and, following some close fought races, trailed by just two points with four heats left.

The destination of the silverware was in the balance until a couple of late home heat advantages, helped by some controversial refereeing decisions, secured Rye House victory.

"I was pleased with our boys.

"I don't think there will be any team that will come to Rye House and run them that close.

"With a couple of decisions in our favour it could have been a lot closer," said Horton after the meeting.

The Tigers' performances almost mirrored that of the first leg at West Row with Daniel King (14), Jason Lyons (10) and Jon Armstrong (8+1) all in top form for their club, with some good back-up from second strings James Brundle and Jason King.

But the away supporters were surprised to see captain Shaun Tacey have, in footballing terminology, "a nightmare" as he failed to score after starting the meeting with two exclusions in his first two races through a fall and touching the tapes. Rockets asset Barry Burchatt will also have been disappointed with his 1+1 contribution from reserve.

Horton said: "It was a good team performance and the morale is very good.

"Shaun doesn't go to places and get a zero - if he had got five points we would have won the meeting.

"It's a learning curve for Barry. I was expecting one or two points more from him but I'm very happy and very confident.

"I've seen enough from tonight - the boys are just starting to get into the groove.

"We've just got to pick one or two riders up and once they're into the groove we'll take some stopping.