The Paul Chapman and Sons Leicester Lions came close to a win in their opening Elite League fixture of the season last night at Coventry.
For the majority of the match there were no more than a two point gap between the teams with Leicester taking the lead on three separate occasions only for the Bees to mount a strong finish through inspirational riding by Chris Harris, Danny King and Krzysztof Kasprzak which earned the home side a 49 points to 41 win.
Nevertheless the Lions can take heart from their performance against a team that is tipped for a top four finish. Josh Auty and Paul Starke gave their teammates strong support and they featured in four of Leicester’s five heat advantages.
“We put up a valiant effort that in the end was just not quite good enough but our performance against one of the fancied teams for a play-off place was encouraging” said the Lions Team Manager Norrie Allan.
Scorers
Coventry 49 points: Krzysztof Kasprzak 10+1, Jason Garrity 2, Danny King 12+1, Kacper Woryna 4, Chris Harris 13+2, James Sarjeant 4 and Josh Bates 4+1
Leicester 41 points: Patrick Hougaard 5, Nicolai Klindt 4+1, Grzegorz Walasek 4, Szymon Wozniak 2+1, Sebastian Ulamek 7, Josh Auty 10+2 and Paul Starke 9
The return fixture against the Bees takes place tonight at the Beaumont Park Stadium with the first race starting at 7.30 pm.
