NEWS ARCHIVE

Mildenhall 46, King's Lynn 44

King's Lynn crashed to a shock last- gasp defeat, which crushed their slim hopes of defending their Premier Trophy title, in Saturday night's derby thriller at Mildenhall.

Six points up after three heats, they stumbled to six behind with four races to go, battled back in the see-saw struggle to lead by two going into the tense showdown, but ended as stunned 46-44 losers.

After Rusty Harrison and Kozza Smith regained the lead by powering to a heat 14 5-1 the Stars were hot favourites in the clash of the top-scorers.

They were up against a formidable pairing in Mildenhall's Finnish and German duo of Kai Laukkanen and Robbie Kessler, but had beaten them both at times during a memorable match, and seemed certain to at least get a couple of points to deny the Fen Tigers their first victory in a troubled, injury-hit start to the season. But crucially Stars skipper Tomas Topinka lost the toss for gate positions, the home pairing, off one and three, hit the first bend in front and comfortably kept Topinka and Kevin Doolan at the back for the four laps.

“That was an astonishing win,” said Mildenhall team boss Laurence Rogers, “Robbie Kessler made a magnificent comeback to score 16 after being out injured for five weeks, and we had the experienced men in there when we needed cool heads in the decider.”

Victories for Kessler, Laukkanen and Jan Graversen gave Mildenhall a hat-trick of 4-2s to level the scores at 18-18 before Kessler and Laukkanen shut out Shaun Tacey for a 5-1 in heat nine. Then new signing Henning Loof defeated Doolan to make it 33-27 after heat ten.

But the Stars win so many trophies because they never give up, and they stormed back as Doolan, despite the pain from his recent injury, outgunned Laukkanen and Topinka outpaced Kessler, before the heat 14 maximum.

Mildenhall, however, with Kessler back, and also strengthened by new signing Loof, were not the chopping block team of their previous matches, while the Stars, despite flashes of form from the back-up men, looked as though they need a big hitter as the third heat leader.

Stars skipper Topinka could not have been dignified in defeat. After congratulating the home camp he commented: “It was a great match, and we thought we were going to do it after fighting back so well, but Mildenhall were the best team on the night.”

Mildenhall 46: Kessler 16 (six rides), Laukkanen 11 (plus 1 bonus from 5), Wright 7, Loof 6, Graversen 5, Makinen 1.

King's Lynn 44: Topinka 11 (from 5), Doolan 11 (from 5), Smith 7 (plus 1), Harrison 5, Tacey 4, Lambert 3 (plus 2), Oliver 3.

Ashley Jones: a Star in our hearts... forever!

copyright 2008 KING'S LYNN STARS / MWEB MEDIA / STEVE HONE PHOTOGRAPHY