PREMIERSHIP FIXTURE UPDATE

FOLLOWING the postponements of three meetings on Thursday June 5, all clubs in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership have agreed to a number of fixture changes.

The second legs of both KO Cup semi-finals, at Ipswich and Sheffield, fell victim to the weather, as well as the league clash between Belle Vue and Birmingham.

New dates have now been confirmed for all three fixtures, which also keeps the KO Cup on schedule for completion in the final week of July.

The second leg of the Sheffield/Leicester semi-final will now take place on Thursday June 26, which was previously the date for a league fixture between the sides at Owlerton.

Leicester’s remaining league visit to Sheffield will now be on Thursday August 21, which means the Tigers’ home matches against Birmingham and Oxford move to Thursday July 3 and Monday July 14 respectively.

The second leg of the Ipswich/King’s Lynn semi-final will now take place on Thursday July 17, a date on which the Witches were originally scheduled to travel to Oxford.

They will now visit Cowley on Monday July 7 with Belle Vue, who were the scheduled opponents on that date, moving to Thursday July 17.

This in turn frees up Belle Vue to stage a home meeting on Monday July 7, which is the re-arranged date for the Aces to host Birmingham – the other postponed fixture from Thursday.

The schedule for TNT Sports live broadcasts is therefore updated to feature Oxford v Ipswich on Monday July 7 and Sheffield v Oxford on Monday July 14, with TV fixtures beyond that date to be confirmed shortly.

Premiership CEO Phil Morris said: “I’d like to thank all seven clubs for their co-operation and swiftly agreeing to these changes which means we have dates in place for all fixtures despite the three rain-offs on Thursday.

“I was actually up in the small hours looking at ways we could sort it out, as it does become a jigsaw to put everything together when you also bear in mind other commitments for clubs and riders.

“We do apologise to supporters for having to make the changes, but obviously we can’t control the weather, and the first actual new fixture that has been slotted in is still just under a month away, so hopefully that gives people time to make arrangements.

“It was important for us to protect the KO Cup Final dates as we do want to run those meetings in the summer, and a couple of changes we made actually freed up home dates elsewhere, so we all feel this is the best solution.”

The fixture changes are summarised as follows:

THURSDAY JUNE 26

UPDATE Sheffield v Leicester becomes KOC SF (was Prem R1)

THURSDAY JULY 3

INSERT Sheffield v Birmingham (Prem R2)

MONDAY JULY 7

INSERT Belle Vue v Birmingham (Prem R1)

DELETE Oxford v Belle Vue (Prem R2)

INSERT Oxford v Ipswich (Prem R2)

MONDAY JULY 14

DELETE Sheffield v Birmingham (Prem R2)

INSERT Sheffield v Oxford (Prem R2)

THURSDAY JULY 17

DELETE Oxford v Ipswich (Prem R2)

INSERT Oxford v Belle Vue (Prem R2)

INSERT Ipswich v King’s Lynn (KOC SF)

THURSDAY JULY 24

UPDATE Sheffield v Leicester becomes Prem R1 (was Prem R2)

THURSDAY AUGUST 21

DELETE Sheffield v Oxford (Prem R2)

INSERT Sheffield v Leicester (Prem R2)