PREVIEW: LEICESTER v IPSWICH (ROWE MOTOR OIL PREM GRAND FINAL)

LEICESTER and Ipswich clash in the first leg of the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership Grand Final with the action getting underway tonight (Monday) at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park.

The Lions reached their second successive Grand Final courtesy of a dramatic semi-final win over Sheffield, and they already have the KO Cup in the bag after a successful campaign so far.

Meanwhile the Witches are chasing a first title since 1998 having suffered various near misses in the past, including the 2023 Grand Final against Sheffield featuring several of their current team.

Leicester are unchanged from the semi-final whilst Ipswich have a change of riding order as former Lions youngster Dan Thompson returns to reserve, whilst Tom Brennan switches to the middle order with Emil Sayfutdinov and Jason Doyle in their established No.1/No.5 positions.

Lions boss Stewart Dickson said: “I said after we lost the Final last year it would be nice to try and get back into another one, which we’ve done, but we know it’s not going to be easy.

“There’s an old saying that we’re just glad to be in the Final, and whilst so much of that is true, there’s a big part of us, and that’s the whole club, that wants to go one step further.

“I’m under no illusions about how difficult it will be, and previous results against Ipswich don’t count for anything really. We start again on Monday, and we have every chance of getting a lead to take down there.

“We are going to need a lead, but I wouldn’t put any figure on that because any sort of lead puts pressure on the team who are behind going into the second leg.”
Witches manager Ritchie Hawkins said: “We have been wating for this all season and we head to a place where we have a great record at in recent years, and as a team we love racing there.

“We will go there with confidence knowing how good we can be there, but also knowing that they are an extremely good team and what a challenge it will be.

“We will try and approach the meeting like most, but everyone knows the importance of it. Everyone has worked hard for a number of years to get here, and it is a couple of years since the massive disappointment of the last Grand Final.

“A lot of the team are still here and are ready to put that right. Last year’s semi-final at Leicester was a disappointment and we don’t want to have that feeling again.”

LEICESTER: Max Fricke, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
IPSWICH: Emil Sayfutdinov, Danny King, Tom Brennan, Adam Ellis, Jason Doyle, Dan Thompson, Jason Edwards.

SCB Referee: Graeme Hunter