It’s a top of the table fixture at the Beaumont Park Stadium on Saturday when the Elliott sponsored Lions take on the Newcastle Diamonds for Premier League points. The North-east club are six points ahead of Leicester who have two matches in hand over the visitors.
Newcastle drew at Glasgow on Sunday and twenty-four hours later in the return fixture they recorded a comprehensive 62-31 win against the current league champions. Though victory came at a cost after a crash that left their Dane, Claes Nedermark with mild concussion ruling him out of the meeting against Leicester. Newcastle will cover for his absence by sharing out his rides amongst his teammates which means that under the competition rules all but Stuart Robson and Mark Lemon can replace him during the meeting.
The Lions meanwhile make one positional change to their riding order with Jari Mäkinen moving back into the main body of the team to partner his captain Kauko Nieminen and Jan Graversen drops down to the number seven berth in the side.
The night before, Leicester travel to Plymouth for a Premier League fixture and are looking to get more out of the meeting than when they were last there in April when the Lions were in front with two races remaining only to surrender their lead and the match. “After a break of two weeks without a meeting we have to hit the ground running at Plymouth. They are currently bottom of the league table but are a very good home side and we will have to be on the top of our game. We were so close to a win the last time we were there in the League Cup and it was a disappointment for everyone to lose the match the way we did after performing so well until the latter stages.
“The Newcastle fixture will be another test of character even though they will be missing Claes Nedermark. His absence means that under the rules of the meeting they cannot use either of their top two riders, Stuart Robson or Mark Lemon, to take his programmed rides but that may not necessarily weaken them because the rider replacement facility can work for you particularly if the team has a free scoring rider at reserve. I believe Newcastle have such a person in Richie Worrall who is riding well above his current match average and can take seven rides in the meeting so it is another big night for us and one we have to win in order to keep pace with the league leaders” commented the Lions Co-promoter Alan Jones.
Teams for Saturday:
Leicester: 1. Magnus Karlsson, 2. Simon Lambert, 3. Kauko Nieminen, 4. Jari Mäkinen, 5. Lasse Bjerre, 6. Simon Nielsen and 7. Jan Graversen
Newcastle: 1. Stuart Robson, 2. Rider Replacement, 3. Mark Lemon, 4. Christian Henry, 5. Ludvig Lindgren, 6. Steve Worrall and 7. Richie Worrall
