LIONS DEFEAT WOUNDED STARS

LEICESTER moved six points clear of ROWE Motor Oil Premiership play-off rivals King’s Lynn with a 53-37 win at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.

The Lions took control with two early 5-1s against a Stars side who were without three of their regular top six, but Richard Lawson and Chris Harris ensured they remained competitive.

Lawson inflicted a rare home defeat on Max Fricke as he ended on 14+2 from seven rides, and Harris won his last two outings to end on 11.

Lions skipper Fricke totalled 13+1 whilst Drew Kemp impressed at reserve with 10+2 and Ryan Douglas scored 10.

Kemp said: “It was a really good win for the guys tonight. I think King’s Lynn are on our tails and chasing us for that play-off spot, so to get one over on them was a good result for us.

“I think we’re all coming into form how we should be, Joe (Thompson) is chipping in with points and making some good starts, Max is as good as ever and we’re all pretty consistent.

“That’s what we need and what we were lacking at the start of the year, but we all seem to be finding our feet and I think it shows.”

King’s Lynn boss Rob Lyon said: “It was a creditable effort, and without being too defeatist we were trying to be realistic. It was damage limitation, and we had to try and keep it as close as possible.

“I felt we did as good a job as we could, to be fair. There were a couple of unlucky situations with Richad having an engine problem when he was in a good position, and the referee’s call in Heat 13 (disqualification of Niels-Kristian Iversen).

“Generally it wasn’t too bad, the boys tried hard with what we had, and they put on a respectable show. We’ll now be assessing things over the weekend and see what we can put out on Monday.”

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Photo credit: MIA DURKIN