DUDLEY Heathens’ perfect National League record came to an end with a 53-36 defeat at Mildenhall.

It was no great surprise that the eleventh match of the league campaign proved to be the end of Heathens’ winning run, as they had to travel to West Row without their top three riders on form this season – Adam Roynon, Ashley Morris and Tom Perry.

The visitors did take an early lead thanks to a 3-0 in an eventful Heat 2 which saw three riders disqualified, and at mid-meeting with the scores at 25-20 in Mildenhall’s favour, Heathens still had a chance of an unlikely point.

But the Fen Tigers then moved clear and guest Gary Irving was limited to second place on his tactical ride by Stefan Nielsen in Heat 11.

Two 5-1s in Heats 12 and 13 ended the Heathens’ challenge, enabling the home side to go level on points with Dudley at the top of the table.

But the three remaining fixtures for the Heathens are all at home, and they can take a giant step towards securing top spot if they win Tuesday’s return fixture, when all of their big hitters are due to return.

Boss Will Pottinger said: “We are pleased to get this meeting out of the way as we were on a hiding to nothing and Mildenhall knew that.

"Once again we had fantastic travelling support and we thank Gary Irving for standing in for Adam Roynon.

"We didn't win enough races and that's because we were without our top three riders. We must now focus totally on Tuesday at Monmore Green and look for some revenge.”

MILDENHALL 53: Danny Halsey 13+1, Stefan Nielsen 13, Joe Jacobs 11+3, Jason Garrity 9+1, Josh Bates 7, Ryan Terry-Daley 0, Lewis Blackbird r/r.

DUDLEY 36: Gary Irving 11, Byron Bekker 10, Darryl Ritchings 6+3, James White-Williams 5+2, Dan Greenwood 4+1, Conor Dwyer 0, Ashley Morris r/r.