Ipswich Witches v Leicester Lions

IPSWICH and Leicester fought out a 45-45 draw in the first leg of the Premiership KO Cup Final to set up a winner-takes-all showdown in Thursday’s return.

The Lions performed the perfect containing job at Foxhall, never dropping more than four points down on the night, and in fact it took a last race 4-2 from Witches duo Danny King and Richard Lawson to salvage a share on the night.

The crucial contribution came from Lions reserve Drew Kemp, who piled up a remarkable 15 points on his old home track with five race wins out of six.

Ryan Douglas (10) also reached double figures for the visitors despite a fall in Heat 1, whilst King’s (12) only defeat came when he fell on the first bend of Heat 8.

King said: “There’s a lot to do on Thursday – that’s pretty obvious. I feel we slipped up a little bit. We all struggled here and there in places. But we have nothing to lose on Thursday. We go there and it’s a track we all ride well and a place we have won at.

“We can’t get our heads down too much. We just have to go there and put up a fight. It’s frustrating and we are all frustrated – I can assure you. But we are all up for the challenge now.

“We are going to use that frustration in our favour and go to Leicester and throw everything at them on Thursday.”

Leicester manager Stewart Dickson said: “We’ve put ourselves in a good position, and we’ve been on the other side of it with a reserve in that kind of form, so I know what it’s like!

“Drew has done very well tonight, and that’s the Drew Kemp that we know he can be – he just needs to do it a bit more consistently, and he knows that more than anybody, but that’s what he can do for us.

“We’ve done the job that we wanted to do, and I would have taken a score of 43 or 44 points, so to get a draw sets things up perfectly for Thursday night.”

PREMIERSHIP KO CUP FINAL, 1st leg
IPSWICH 45: Danny King 12, Richard Lawson 8, Tobiasz Musielak 8, Scott Nicholls 6+1, Jason Edwards 5+2, Tom Brennan 4, Kevin Juhl Pedersen 2.
LEICESTER 45: Drew Kemp 15, Ryan Douglas 10, Sam Masters 6+1, Dan Thompson 6+1, Nick Morris 3+1, Kyle Howarth 3, Joe Thompson 2+1.

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Photo credit: JEFF HIGGOTT