LEICESTER are back on the road in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership this Thursday as they visit pace setters and title favourites Ipswich.
The Watling JCB Lions, who hold fourth place in the league standings, went down 52-38 at Belle Vue on Monday although elsewhere a home defeat for King’s Lynn against Sheffield was a positive for Lions’ play-off chances.
The trip to Foxhall is another tough one, as although the Witches’ unbeaten record in 2025 was finally ended at Sheffield last Thursday, their home form has been utterly dominant so far.
Ipswich’s first three outings on their own circuit saw them top the 60-point mark, before they surprisingly found themselves trailing against King’s Lynn until blasting back in the second half of the meeting to record a comfortable win.
However, just as in 2024 the Witches have now been struck by injuries with former World Champion Jason Doyle crashing heavily in last weekend’s FIM Grand Prix of Poland in Warsaw, and he is currently ruled out with a dislocated hip.
One day later, Dan Thompson came to grief in his first ride of the British Under-21 Final at Glasgow, and he is out with a scaphoid injury.
Despite those problems, the Witches still won at Birmingham on Monday, and they will operate rider replacement at No.1 for Doyle with former Lion Cubs captain Danyon Hume stepping in at reserve to guest for Thompson.
Leicester name an unchanged line-up for the meeting which also has an aggregate point at stake following the Witches’ 49-41 win at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park last month.
Manager Stewart Dickson said: “I said to the boys towards the end of match at Belle Vue that they need to keep their heads up and not get too uptight about it, because it’s just one meeting and we have another one coming right up on Thursday.
“It was always going to be tough at Belle Vue, we have to be sensible about things and we have other sensible targets to go for – Thursday at Ipswich being one of them!”
A reminder of the earlier announcement that there is no meeting at Leicester this Sunday when the Lion Cubs were due to face Belle Vue, with the Lions now racing on Bank Holiday Monday at midday against Birmingham.
IPSWICH: Jason Doyle r/r, Danny King, Adam Ellis, Tom Brennan, Emil Sayfutdinov, Danyon Hume, Jordan Jenkins.
LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
