SPEEDWAY: SGB Championship play-off, semi-final, second-leg: Leicester Lions 53, Edinburgh Monarchs 37 (agg: 106-73)
Two former Edinburgh Monarchs riders helped send the Scots spinning out if the SGB Championship play-offs. Richie Worrall and Kyle Howarth both scored 15 points as Leicester Lions powered to the Grand Final where they will meet either Glasgow Tigers or Poole Pirates.
Skipper Sam Masters was best for the visitors with 12 points on a night in which the Scots lost 53-37 and the semi-final tie over two legs 106-73.
The damage was done at Armadale on Friday in the first-leg and Edinburgh Monarchs boss Alex Harkess expressed his disappointment as Leicester Lions took control of the SGB Championship semi-final tie, holding a 17-point advantage with their home leg to come.
Gutted Harkess admitted: “It was a very poor performance by us. We are not as bad a team as we looked. We can’t be or we would never have beaten Redcar (Bears) last week (in the quarter-final). Even when we gated we were being out-fought round the first corner. Leicester were excellent.”
The score was a massive let-down for Armadale fans who have seen the team finish fourth in the league and reach the semi-finals of the Knockout Cup and the play-offs.
But they did not look the fourth best team on Friday as Lions roared from Heat 1. Nick Morris raced away from the start, joined by Connor Mountain who slipped past Monarchs’ captain Sam Masters to record an opening 5-1.
Former Monarchs riders Max Clegg and Richie Worrall took race wins in Heats 2 and 3 and, although Josh Pickering’s first bend cutback gave him a Heat 4 win over Kyle Howarth, there was no heat advantage, and equally no let-up by Leicester.
They claimed the next five race winners and the lead was extended to 13 by Heat 9, assisted by a 5-0 in Heat 8 when Lasse Fredriksen and Jacob Hook slid off.
Monarchs had no answer to the ferocity of Leicester’s onslaught, so fast from the tapes and so determined around the first turn. Morris, Worrall and Howarth were all high-quality but Connor Mountain and Max Clegg were also impressive.
Masters claimed his first race win in Heat 10 against former team mate Worrall, but Pickering had to work hard to even get a second place in Heat 11 as he battled past Mountain, which was the first defeat for Lions No 2.
Heat 12 was another 4-2 loss but fans finally we saw the best of Masters and Pickering as they teamed up in the usual style for a 5-1 in heat 13 over Howarth and Morris.
Even that though was reversed in the final race by Howarth and Worrall and fans were left wondering how Leicester suffered a 30-point defeat at Poole Pirates in midweek.
PICTURE: Stewart Dickson, Lions’ team manager
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