LEICESTER’S youngsters take centre stage this weekend as they bid for a place in the National Development League KO Cup Final.
The Lion Cubs travel to Berwick on Saturday (7pm) for the first leg of the semi-final before staging the return at the Paul Chapman & Sons Arena on Sunday (4pm).
It’s a clash of the current top two in the NDL table and a tight contest is expected over 30 heats as the teams battle for the right to face Mildenhall in the Final.
They have already met once this season at Berwick, where the home side ran out 49-41 winners as the Cubs rued a number of misfortunes on the night.
But the Bullets’ strength at home cannot be under-estimated as they have won all six NDL matches on their own circuit in 2022 and have a strong spearhead led by skipper Kyle Bickley.
The Cubs were without Max Perry on their previous visit, but they track a full-strength side in Saturday’s first leg.
They do, though, have to do without Connor Coles for the second leg as he has a Championship match for Scunthorpe – although July averages mean all members of the side are eligible for one of his outings under the rider replacement facility.
Cubs boss Dave Howard said: “We go into the weekend on a psychological and confidence high after the fantastic performance at Mildenhall last Sunday.
“Berwick will be tough, they are a top of the league and are a solid team, but we’ll be giving it our all to try and make it to the Cup Final.
“We probably should have come away with points there in the league if we hadn’t had some misfortune, so hopefully we can ride there in the same way we did last time.”
BERWICK: Kyle Bickley, Mason Watson, Ace Pijper, Greg Blair, Luke Crang, Kieran Douglas, Ben Rathbone.
LEICESTER: Dan Thompson, Mickie Simpson, Connor Coles, Tom Spencer, Joe Thompson, Vinnie Foord, Max Perry.
