Leicester face two very important fixtures over the Bank Holiday period that will go a long way to determining whether they make the play-offs or not. On Sunday the Harry Jordan Lions face the Berwick Bandits at home without two of their influential riders, Kauko Nieminen and Alex Edberg. The Leicester captain is still troubled by the shoulder injury he picked up during the last home fixture and Edberg will be testing out his fitness after the meeting on Sunday.
“After the win at Redcar last week we are back in the frame for a top six finish and it is very much in our own hands now whether we succeed or not. There are two teams in the top six who are within our reach and we have to believe that we can overhaul one of them in the final reckoning. But to do that we have to gain all three match points against Berwick on Sunday and go to Scunthorpe the next day and pick up at the very least a draw which will give us another two match points. It is going to be tight but if we duplicate the same ‘can do’ attitude as we did to surprise the Redcar team then anything is possible” commented the Lions Co-promoter Alan Jones.
Leicester will cover for the absence of Nieminen by sharing his rides out with his teammates in the two fixtures and have booked Ryan Douglas as a guest for Edberg against Berwick. On Monday the Lions have lined up a guest should Edberg fail his fitness test the day before.
There will be an additional six races after the senior event on Sunday when a Leicester Lion Cubs team ride against the Long Eaton Invaders for the Mick Spiers Memorial Trophy. Mick was born and bred in Leicester and was making great progress with the Long Eaton Invaders junior side when he died following a crash during a team training session. Mick was nineteen at the time and would have undoubtedly formed part of the side that won the Anglian Junior League in 1984. His name lived on at Long Eaton where the Memorial Trophy was raced for at junior level in the 1980’s and nineties up until the stadium closed for redevelopment.
The competition was contested on eight occasions at Long Eaton and the original trophy has been located and recently returned to the Spiers family. The trophy is an exact replica of Mick riding his speedway bike and the trophy will be on display inside the stadium main entrance for fans to view before the meeting.
“I was the speedway correspondent for Radio Trent, the Commercial Radio Station that sponsored the Invaders back in those days and remember Mick very well. He was certainly making good progress to become a professional speedway rider when the accident happened. We should never forget the people who are no longer with us and when the idea of a Memorial meeting was run past me I readily agreed. I am sure the two teams will put on a good show for Mick’s family on Sunday to mark the 30th anniversary of his death” added Jones.
