LEICESTER are celebrating major top-flight team silverware for the first time in their history after lifting the Premiership Knockout Cup.
The Watling JCB Lions thrashed King’s Lynn 60-30 in the second leg of the Final at a packed Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park on Thursday to complete a 30-point aggregate triumph.
Whilst the final score doesn’t totally tell the story of the match, with the Lions extending their lead through some dominant closing stages, there was no doubt they were much the better side over the two legs.
Manager Stewart Dickson had called for a full seven-rider team performance and that was exactly what the Lions delivered.
Their heat-leader trio of Max Fricke, Sam Masters and Ryan Douglas each dropped just one point to an opponent, as did guest Tom Brennan who stood in superbly for Luke Becker over the two legs.
Meanwhile Kyle Howarth battled away for several important points, there was a massive turnaround from the first leg for Drew Kemp, and his fellow reserve Joe Thompson once again played his part.
In a winner-takes-all second leg, Lions made the perfect start when Fricke eased Niels-Kristian Iversen wide on turn two of the opening race, enabling Brennan to come through and set up a 5-1 to kick things off.
Nicolai Klindt was always going to have an important role to play at reserve for the Stars and he duly won Heat 2 ahead of Kemp, but Thompson worked hard to re-pass Luke Harrison for third place in a 3-3.
Lions briefly held another 5-1 in Heat 3 only for Chris Harris to charge inside Howarth on lap two, and a 4-2 in that race was cancelled out in the next by Klindt’s second win in Heat 4, with Masters in second place ahead of Jan Kvech.
The Stars then began to hit trouble, first when Howarth rounded Iversen for third place in Heat 5 with the Dane falling on turn three. With Douglas clear up-front the race was awarded as a Lions 4-2.
Then in Heat 6 Fricke moved strongly inside Klindt on turn two, and the Lynn skipper ran out of room and came down heavily. The referee studied replays before disqualifying Klindt, and the Lions extracted the maximum from the re-run with a 5-1 over Klindt.
Masters pulled off a good move to get inside Harris on lap two of Heat 7 as Leicester went 12 points up, and although their momentum was slightly checked when Thompson picked up a disqualification for clipping Harrison to bring his opponent down in Heat 8, Brennan prevented any damage with a smart start to win the re-run ahead of Richard Lawson.
Kvech was the next Lynn rider to come to grief as he lost it on the inside of turn three in Heat 9 after a very competitive half-lap of racing. The Czech racer didn’t appear again in the meeting, although his team-mate Klindt won the re-run before Harris rode a great race to defeat Fricke and Brennan in the next.
Lions took a 36-24 lead into the final five races and it was from this point that they really stretched their legs, with Kemp coming to the fore in Heat 11 with a terrific ride to fend off Lawson and join Masters for a 5-1.
That put Leicester to the brink of clinching the Cup, and Heat 12 saw Harris disqualified after he charged inside Douglas on the third bend with both riders coming down.
It meant the Lions simply needed to share the re-run to move into an unassailable position, but Douglas went one better by re-passing Klindt in the re-run with Thompson third for a 4-2, and Leicester were confirmed as KO Cup winners.
With any pressure then taken out of the occasion and with their opponents understandably deflated, Lions took advantage to reel off 5-1s in each of the three remaining races as Masters joined Fricke in Heat 13 and Douglas in Heat 15, whilst Kemp and Howarth raced clear of former Leicester skipper Scott Nicholls in Heat 14.
The final hat-trick of 5-1s took Lions to the 60-point mark on the night and completed a perfect team performance rewarded with the silverware.
Dickson said: “Full credit goes to my riders for Monday night and tonight. We did the hard yards on Monday, and whilst it was nip and tuck for the first four or five races tonight, we then came into our own.
“I think the Nicolai Klindt exclusion kind of rocked them a bit, and we found some momentum and pushed on.
“When you saw us in the second half of the meeting in full flight, all looking for each other, it was great to see.
“To celebrate in front of the supporters was a special moment for us, because when we won the (Championship) league at Glasgow in 2019 we were away from home, so to do it in front of our own supporters – and how many were there tonight! – was fantastic.
“A special mention too for Joe Thompson who has been here since he was a kid, even before me, and it’s great for him to be part of something so special for us.”
With Leicester’s 2025 team now in the history books as KO Cup winners, they turn their attentions back to the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership and another trip to King’s Lynn on Monday.
*LEICESTER Fox Cubs have announced the signings of Freddy Hodder and Jordy Loftus ahead of their home NDT match against Plymouth on Sunday.
PREMIERSHIP KO CUP FINAL, 2nd leg
LEICESTER 60: Ryan Douglas 14, Sam Masters 12+2, Max Fricke 10+1, Tom Brennan 9+2, Drew Kemp 8+1, Kyle Howarth 5+2, Joe Thompson 2+1.
KING’S LYNN 30: Nicolai Klindt 11, Chris Harris 7, Richard Lawson 6+1, Jan Kvech 2, Luke Harrison 2, Niels-Kristian Iversen 1, Scott Nicholls 1.
Leicester win 105-75 on aggregate
