Diamonds overpowered as Lions romp to record win
VISITORS OUTSCORED IN
LEICESTER powered their way to a landslide win against the Newcastle Diamonds in their Championship fixture at the Paul Chapman and Sons Arena on Saturday, writes Alan Jones.
The 63-27 result set a new all-time league record at home, beating the previous best set against King’s Lynn four years ago and it moved Leicester up to fourth place in the league table.
The Watling JCB Lions hit form from the very beginning and outscored the visitors in every race over the first five heats to lead by 23 points to seven.
It left Newcastle facing an uphill battle to gain anything from this match and while they drew the following three races it transpired that this was going to be their sum total of resistance.
From thereon, the Leicester team shifted up into another gear, adding points to their cumulative total with relative ease.
Kyle Howarth led the charge with a perfect score of fifteen – the first time this season that the Lions skipper has remained unbeaten by an opposing rider.
While Howarth was the headline maker, his teammates met with success, too.
The Lions’ teenage twins, Dan and Joe Thompson between them gained many points through skilful overtaking manoeuvres which led to increasing their points’ tallies.
Tom Brennan was an able guest replacement as cover for the injured Josh Bates by scoring points in each of his five track appearances.
Nick Morris almost matched How
arth’s feat, dropping just a single point from his five races, to Tero Aanio, in the sixth heat and Ryan Douglas was impressive again with his sixth double figure score so far in this campaign.
Douglas said: “It was a good win and a good team performance.
“In most meetings recently we’ve had one or two hiccups but it was good see everyone scoring some decent points and getting the win.”
Leicester 63: Kyle Howarth 15 points, Nick Morris 14, Ryan Douglas 11+1, Dan Thompson 10+2, Tom Brennan 7+2, Joe Thompson 6+3 and Ty Proctor (rider replacement).
Newcastle 27: Tero Aarnio 10 points, Connor Mountain 5, Max Clegg 5, James Wright 4+1, Matthew Wethers 3, Jack Parkinson-Blackburn 0 and Adam Roynon (rider replacement).
EVERY RACE WITH SKIPPER ACHIEVING PERFECT SCORE