LEICESTER will have to deal with the occasion as well as the opposition when the Premiership KO Cup Final gets underway at Ipswich on Monday (7.30pm).
The Watling JCB Lions are the defending holders following last season’s memorable Final triumph over King’s Lynn, and they are fired up to claim the trophy once again in 2026.
It’s the second item of major Premiership silverware in succession to be contested by the Lions and the Witches, after the Suffolk side won the league Grand Final last autumn in two meetings which featured plenty of drama but were ridden in a good spirit.
However, the Lions’ away win at Ipswich in a league match earlier this month was overshadowed by a furious row over track conditions, with remedial work required at Foxhall to ensure the track was in raceable condition.
Witches manager Paul Hurry has stoked the fires ahead of this Monday’s meeting by publicly stating that the Lions “created havoc” on that occasion – although it should be remembered that Ipswich still went into a good lead and it was only in the closing stages, long after the track work, when Leicester came back from six points down to win the meeting with three 5-1s in the last four heats.
All of which means the Lions may not expect the warmest of welcomes, but their main focus is on their own business in the knowledge that this is a far stronger Ipswich side than the one they faced three weeks ago.
Danny King and Richard Lawson are both back from injury and illness respectively, meaning the Witches have the solidarity of their top five back together.
And whilst Thursday’s 46-44 home win over Belle Vue was hugely dramatic and crowd-pleasing for the way in which it was achieved, manager Stewart Dickson knows his team as a whole need to be on a higher level this week.
He said: “We have to deal with whatever Ipswich throw at us, and I really feel this Final is a 50/50 situation. I said that the minute I knew it was going to be us and them.
“We went there at a good time three weeks ago when Danny King and Richard Lawson were absent, and that’s part of the sport – you take those opportunities when they arise.
“But Danny scored a four-ride maximum in his first meeting back, so it shows you how good he is around there!
“I’ve got my target in mind as to what we need, although I’ll be keeping that to myself. It is one of those tracks you can go to and they can blow you away, so we need to go there and keep it as close as we possibly can.
“It’s great to be in another Final and what we must do is set things up for the second leg on Thursday – so stating the obvious, we cannot afford to start like we did last week against Belle Vue.
“We cannot do that on either Monday or Thursday, and the riders know that – and I don’t think we will.”
If you aren’t able to make the trip to Foxhall, remember you can follow the action live on BSN at https://www.britishspeedwaynetwork.co.uk/ and also keep in touch with all the scores in real time from https://live.britishspeedway.co.uk/ .
IPSWICH: Tom Brennan, Danny King, Richard Lawson, Scott Nicholls, Tobiasz Musielak, Kevin Juhl Pedersen, Jason Edwards.
LEICESTER: Ryan Douglas, Dan Thompson, Nick Morris, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
