LEICESTER will face an eight-point deficit when they face Ipswich at home on Thursday, with their ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off semi-final perfectly poised at the halfway stage.
The Watling JCB Lions were beaten 49-41 in Monday’s first leg at Foxhall, and that result represented a major comeback in the closing stages after the Witches threatened to put the tie almost out of reach.
After ten races, the Lions trailed by 16 points and looked to be in the most difficult of positions – but two big 5-1s in the closing stages saw them halve the deficit and leave everything up for grabs in the return fixture.
Gating was of paramount importance and although Lions won the toss they were unable to profit from an early run of gates one and three, with three in particular proving to be a graveyard for the likes of Max Fricke and Luke Becker.
Fricke was relegated to the back of Heat 1 as Ipswich took a 4-2, and disaster struck in Heat 3 when the Witches were gifted a 5-1 as race leader Sam Masters suffered ignition failure on the last lap.
Another 5-1 followed from King and Dan Thompson with Fricke unable to make it through, and the Lions were already 17-7 down with guest Lewis Kerr their only race winner.
The visitors then worked to stem the tide with Fricke and Richard Lawson keeping Tom Brennan at the back of Heat 5, whilst Masters did well to recover from his earlier setback and hold off Jan Kvech in a shared Heat 6.
But when taking two rides on the trot in Heat 7 Masters was caught out going into the third bend by a strong move from youngster Ashton Boughen, and with Danny King up front the Witches were 12 points ahead and looking good.
Two more shared races followed with Lawson taking his traditional Heat 8 win over Adam Ellis, but Heat 10 went badly wrong for the Lions with Kvech and Ellis racing clear of Masters and Becker in the early stages to make it 38-22.
And whilst play-off speedway is all about 30 races rather than 10 or 15, this was a critical moment in the tie where Leicester had to find a response to prevent the task on Thursday from becoming too great.
Fortunately, they did just that with Fricke and Lawson kicking things off with a 5-1 over King in Heat 11, and the visitors were sharp from the gate in Heat 12 too with Keynan Rew just splitting Masters and Kerr into the third bend, but it was still a 4-2 to the Lions.
Fricke made the start in Heat 13 but Lawson just missed out from the outside, so a shared race left the gap at ten.
Heat 14 was re-started after Boughen came to grief on the first bend when Becker had made an excellent getaway, and in the re-run the former Lion Cubs rider looked set for a dramatic second place behind Brennan to re-extend the Ipswich lead, only for Becker to get up with him and snatch second spot by a tyre width on the line.
But the best of the night was still to come in Heat 15 as Lions, who were unhappy with Ipswich’s track preparation prior to the race, showed real determination with Masters nailing a superb start from the outside and being joined by Fricke to squeeze out Kvech and Brennan and bring the gap back below double figures.
Manager Stewart Dickson said: “We had a wee chat after Heat 7 and I said the only people they were letting down were themselves after the way they’ve performed in the second half of the season.
“We tried to keep it together and not let it get totally out of reach, and the 5-1 in Heat 15 was pivotal because I would have been happy to walk away with a 12-point gap, I was thinking that was as good as we could get.
“We didn’t race well but that’s taking nothing away from Ipswich, they did race well. They asked questions of us, and we didn’t quite have the answers.
“But the tie is still bubbly for Thursday. We need to ride better, Ipswich were the better side tonight, but we’ve kept the tie alive for the second leg.”
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP PLAY-OFF, SEMI-FINAL, 1st LEG
IPSWICH 49: Jan Kvech 10+1, Tom Brennan 9, Danny King 9, Keynan Rew 7+1, Adam Ellis 6+2, Dan Thompson 5+2, Ashton Boughen 3+1.
LEICESTER 41: Max Fricke 10+2, Sam Masters 10, Richard Lawson 9+1, Luke Becker 6+1, Lewis Kerr 6, Sam Hagon 0, Ryan Douglas r/r..
