HISTORY with thanks to Norman Jacobs

How it all started
This is the first in a series of articles about the history of the Mildenhall club and as it’s the first, I thought it would be a good idea to start at the very beginning!

Mildenhall was originally the brain child of Bernie Klatt and his brother, Barry. They had been keen supporters of Norwich and King’s Lynn in the 1960s and had even had a go themselves but both failed to make the grade. Although unable to break through themselves, they saw a number of juniors go on to better things, including their own school friend, Ian “Tiddler” Turner and they thought it would be a good idea if they could start up a training track in their home village of Mildenhall.

In April 1973, Terry Waters, a local farmer, agreed to give them some land and the Klatts cut out a 300 yard circuit on which they built a red shale track on top of a 1000 ton chalk base.

By 1974, regular training sessions were being held every Sunday at a cost of £2.25 per session with trainees having to provide all their own equipment. Matches were also held between the best of the Mildenhall prospects and other training tracks around the country, such as Iwade and Crewe.

One fifteen year old youngster in particular caught the eye of everyone who saw him. His name – Michael Lee, son of local scrambles star, Andy Lee. In one away match at Iwade, on 28 September 1974, Lee smashed the track record by an incredible 1.5 seconds. Back home at Mildenhall he was winning trophy after trophy and scoring maximum after maximum. He was not due to leave school until Easter 1975, but already he had decided he wanted to be a full-time speedway rider, in spite of his father’s wish that he follow in his footsteps as a scrambles rider. Another rider to impress was Kevin Jolly.

You can read more about the history of Mildenhall in Speedway in East Anglia available from the track shop (?) or from any good book shop. Speedway in East Anglia by Norman Jacobs, Published by Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN 07524 1882 3

Mildenhall seeks official recognition
As news got around that there was a decent track in the north of Suffolk, several local riders began to use the track for their own training, including Ipswich’s Billy Sanders and Alan Sage, Peterborough’s Brian Clark and Rye House’s Kelvin Mullarkey. In a poll of riders from the area, Mildenhall was voted one of the six best tracks in the whole country. Not only one of the best tracks, but amazingly, some of the meetings were attracting crowds of up to 1,500 people, without any sort of advertising at all.

Buoyed by the success of the training school and the vote of confidence from local riders, the Klatts decided to apply for a full Training Track Licence with a view to entering a team in to the New National League in 1975.

As well as applying to the Speedway Control Board, a planning application was also put in to make the track permanent. Several local people objected to the application on the grounds of noise, so Suffolk County sent a Public Health Inspector down with the requisite sound recording equipment. Just as he was about to unpack his equipment, a bomber landed at the next door USAF Air Base. The inspector picked up his bag without even bothering to measure the comparatively insignificant sound emanating from four speedway bikes and planning permission was granted.

The Control Board too gave permission and Mildenhall, who took over the Barrow licence on the latter’s closure, were accepted in to the New National League. With a mixture of training school discoveries – though sadly not Michael Lee, who had already signed for King’s Lynn and been loaned out to Boston – and experienced riders signed up as soon as the team was given the go-ahead, the Fen Tigers looked forward eagerly to the start of their illustrious league career.

You can read more about the history of Mildenhall in Speedway in East Anglia available from the track shop (?) or from any good book shop. Speedway in East Anglia by Norman Jacobs, Published by Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN 07524 1882 3


The First Season
The Fen Tigers first match in the league was held on 18 May, 1975, a home New National League fixture against Scunthorpe. Sadly it was not an auspicious start as they went down, 37-41. The team for that historic occasion was Bob Coles, captain, Fred Mills, Stan Stevens, Roger Austin, Alan Witt, Graham Kerry, with Kevin Jolly as reserve. Of these, three, Mills, Kerry and Jolly, were training school discoveries while Austin was another junior. The other three, Coles, Stevens and Witt, were all experienced riders.

Although they lost, there was some cause for optimism as Stevens weighed in with 14 points and, although Coles and Witt only scored eight and six respectively, the supporters could reasonably expect more to come from them. The best news of all was that Jolly scored a paid six.

However, things did not improve and Mildenhall lost their next six matches as well. Looking to strengthen the team, team manager, Barry Klatt, signed up veteran Chris Julian on loan from Exeter, confidently expecting the addition of such an experienced rider to stop the rot. It was not to be as they got annihilated in their next match, 21.5-55.5 by Stoke – at home.

In all the Fen Tigers lost their first eight league matches and then came that glorious day, 22 June, when the boys finally scored their first victory, and what a win it was, as Mildenhall slaughtered Teesside, 51-27. Coles scored a maximum, Julian paid 11 and Stevens paid 10, and, even better, there were 13 points for new signing, Aussie youngster, John McNeill.

Following this break through, Mildenhall continued to win most of their home matches, including another thumping 51-27 win, this time over Paisley. Sadly they also lost all of their away matches.

In the end the Fen Tigers finished one from bottom but at least they had arrived!

You can read more about the history of Mildenhall in Speedway in East Anglia available from the track shop (?) or from any good book shop. Speedway in East Anglia by Norman Jacobs, Published by Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN 07524 1882 3


1976
The success of the winter training school led to an improvement in Mildenhall’s fortunes in their second season, 1976. Three discoveries from the 1975/76 winter school managed to break through in to the team to give the lower order a much more solid look. These three were Robert Henry, Mick Bates and Neil Leeks. With Fred Mills and Kevin Jolly also continuing to improve, promoters Colin Barber and Bernie Klatt were hoping that it wouldn’t be too long before they could track a whole team made up of their own discoveries.
 

Mick Bates and Rob Henry in action against Peterborough.

Of the five, Kevin Jolly proved to be the pick of the bunch, upping his average to 8.63. Unfortunately, he proved to be so good that his parent track, Ipswich, recalled him towards the end of the season, sending another junior, Trevor Jones, in his place. Jones, however, was another success, scoring at an average of 7.88 in his seven matches with the FenTigers.

Of the more experienced riders, Bob Coles remained as captain from the previous year and became the bedrock of the side, scoring four full and one paid maximum in a season that saw him up his average to 9.10 to become Mildenhall’s rider of the year. Stan Stevens did not have too good a year and left half way through. Chris Julian did not return, but his loss was more than compensated for by the signing of the experienced Alan Cowland from Peterborough. Cowland had already been around for something like 14 years and his experience helped strengthen the middle order. His debut on 6 June against Stoke resulted in a 13 point haul and his final average was 6.24.

The season started with an away defeat at Peterborough, but was followed two days later by the first home match, with Coles scoring the first of his full maximums to give the Fen Tigers a winning start at home, 48-30 over Weymouth. Apart from a home loss to Ellesmere Port on 16 May, the first 15 matches of the season resulted in home wins and away losses, the highlight being the 41-37 victory over eventual league champions, Newcastle, on 27 June. This was one of only three defeats the Diamonds suffered all season, which saw them sweep all (or nearly all as the Fen Tigers proved!) before them.
The breakthrough came on 13 July as ten points from Kevin Jolly plus two scores of nine from Coles and Cowland earned Mildenhall a draw away at Weymouth. This was followed on 29 July with the first and only away win of the season, 40-37, at Teesside. Once again it was Coles (with 14) and Jolly (with 11 paid 12) who led the charge.
The rest of the season went pretty much to form with more home wins and away losses. In the end, Mildenhall improved on their debut season by finishing 13th out of 18 in the league. But it was the rate of improvement of the juniors with the hope of more discoveries to come that led to great optimism in the Mildenhall camp that things would get even better in 1977.

You can read more about the history of Mildenhall in Speedway in East Anglia available from the track shop or from any good book shop. Speedway in East Anglia by Norman Jacobs, Published by Tempus Publishing Ltd., ISBN 07524 1882 3.