LEICESTER’S hopes of lifting the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership title took a dent on Monday as they were beaten 47-43 by Ipswich in the first leg of the Grand Final.
The Witches inflicted the Watling JCB Lions’ first home defeat since the end of May on a night of fierce racing in front of a bumper crowd at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.
Leicester only led the meeting once, after Heat 3, and real damage was done in the closing section when the visitors collected four 4-2s in the space of five races between Heats 10-14 to open up an eight-point lead.
However, a 5-1 to the Lions in Heat 15 from Max Fricke and Ryan Douglas did at least halve the gap back to four points, which leaves them still in with a chance albeit as underdogs heading into the second leg.
After two shared races to kick off, the first major talking point came in Heat 3 when Ipswich’s Adam Ellis dived inside both Douglas and Kyle Howarth into turn three, only for both Lions to repass him as he overshot. Next time around, Ellis fell heavily when chasing, and he was withdrawn from the meeting and was taken to hospital for checks.
With the race stopped after the leader had entered the third lap, and the Lions on a clear 5-1 position ahead of Tom Brennan, the result was quite correctly awarded by SCB referee Graeme Hunter.
However, the home side were unable to build on that success as the Witches hit straight back with a 5-1 in Heat 4 as Dan Thompson held off Sam Masters with Jason Doyle out-front, and the next race saw Witches skipper Danny King ride a storming first lap whilst a very impressive Emil Sayfutdinov switched inside Douglas for maximum points.
Lions clawed two points back with a 4-2 in Heat 6 thanks to a strong first lap from Fricke against Doyle, which was the start of a run of race wins as Masters and Luke Becker took the next two, both of which were shared.
A tight first turn in Heat 9 saw Thompson come down and be disqualified by the referee, and the re-run saw the Lions gate on a 5-1 before they were split by Doyle, who then threw everything at Douglas but was unable to find a way through.
That brought the scores level at 27-27 but the next three races provided big results for the Witches as Brennan charged clear of Fricke in Heat 10 with Jason Edwards holding third place ahead of Becker.
There was frustration for Leicester in Heat 11 when Masters and Kemp gated well only for the race to be stopped with King coming down on bend one, and with all four riders going back in, Kemp suffered clutch trouble in the re-run and Masters had to split Sayfutdinov and King to prevent a 1-5 reverse.
That still put Ipswich four points up, and they added another 4-2 in the next with Brennan riding a superb first lap to make it around the field, with Thompson adding third place.
Leicester now trailed 33-39 but they looked set to take points back in Heat 13, only for an incredible ride by Sayfutdinov to deny them, as he moved second ahead of Masters before diving inside Fricke at the start of the last lap, with the riders passing and re-passing on turns three and four and the Ipswich man got the win.
There were more clutch issues for Kemp in Heat 14 as he never left the line, whilst Thompson switched back inside Howarth on lap one for another 4-2, at which stage the tie could easily have slipped away completely.
It required a big result in Heat 15 and Lions were assisted when Sayfutdinov, who was unbeaten to that stage, ran into Douglas on turn four and was disqualified. The re-run saw Fricke and Douglas work together to squeeze out Doyle on lap one, and although Doyle briefly went into second place on lap two, Douglas read the move and turned back to re-take the position for a 5-1.
It left the Lions four points adrift at the end of an intense contest, and their task now is to repeat the achievement of Swindon in the Grand Final of 2017, who lost the first leg at home by an identical scoreline only to win the return at Wolverhampton by five points.
Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “It’s four points, and it could have been a lot worse – it could have been 12 if they’d got a 5-1 in Heat 15.
“I’ll not sugarcoat it, we’ve lost the home leg and that’s something I wanted to avoid. But they are a good team, and now we need to go there on Thursday and almost do the impossible.
“We’ve won there before, and Sheffield won there a couple of weeks ago, but it’s going to be a big task, and if I was in their position I’d be a lot happier than the position we’re in.
“We wish Adam Ellis all the best. It looked a nasty crash and I hope he’s okay, he’s a nice lad, and I did say pre-Final that I didn’t want to see anyone get injured. But it shows you how good they are that they covered well for him with their reserves, it shows their strength in depth.
“It was a fantastic crowd and a great atmosphere, and when I look around the stadium at that, it’s some consolation.
“Myself, Jen Crossland and Paul Cairns have worked very hard, as have the riders with their efforts all season to get us to the Final, so there’s a little bright spot in that, but ultimately when you get into a Final you want to win it!"
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP GRAND FINAL, 1st leg
LEICESTER 43: Max Fricke 12, Ryan Douglas 11+1, Sam Masters 7+1, Luke Becker 5+1, Kyle Howarth 5+1, Drew Kemp 3, Joe Thompson 0.
IPSWICH 47: Emil Sayfutdinov 11+1, Tom Brennan 9, Dan Thompson 8+3, Jason Doyle 8, Jason Edwards 6, Danny King 5+1, Adam Ellis 0.
