LEICESTER 57 FOXES 33
NORTHAMPTON Foxes were beaten 57-33 at Leicester on Monday evening with home No.1 Ryan Douglas scoring a 15-point maximum.
It was a tough night at the Hydroscand Arena, Beaumont Park with a strong Lions side showing their abilities around their own circuit, which restricted the Foxes to three race wins.
The first of those came from skipper Nicolai Klindt with a superb effort from the back in Heat 4 as he and Luke Harrison went either side of Dan Gilkes before Klindt switched inside home captain Sam Masters to take the victory.
Remarkably those were to be the only points Klindt scored in the meeting as he was then beset by mechanical issues and a fall when trying to get on terms with Masters in Heat 7.
Jaimon Lidsey started with a last place in his opening ride but responded with a good win over Kyle Howarth and Nick Morris in Heat 5, and there was another moment to savour for the Foxes in Heat 8.
Troy Batchelor led from Dan Thompson, and as the Lions rider was sizing up a move for the lead Harrison made a clever inside move to pass his opponent and complete a 5-1 for the visitors.
At that stage the gap was ten points, but hopes of pulling it back further were thwarted when Howarth won Heat 9 ahead of tactical substitute Lidsey, with Morris third and Klindt retiring from the race.
The hosts suffered a setback when Thompson crashed in Heat 10 and left the track in pain, but there was no answer to the flying Douglas in the re-run.
And reserve Drew Kemp then joined the party in the closing stages, teaming up with Masters in Heat 11 and Howarth in Heat 14 for 5-1s, which added to another full house from Douglas and Masters in Heat 13.
That took the Lions into a 24-point advantage, although Batchelor and Lidsey did keep Masters at the back of Heat 15 as Douglas completed his maximum with his side worthy winners.
Foxes manager Chris Adams said: “It’s been a tough day, and I haven’t known having two away meetings on a Bank Holiday Monday before!
“At Belle Vue we were only six points down with three heats to go, and we got punished in the last three, but we had a pretty decent meeting there really although the scores don’t reflect it.
“In the evening at Leicester we knew it was going to be hard having lost Matej, and also with the reduced facility guest for Niels, but we tried our best.
“We made some good gates but we were just making some silly mistakes in the first corner and Leicester punished us for it.
“I was quite pleased with Troy and Kye tonight, but we carried a bit too much baggage. We’re working on it, and there are still some positives there. It’s very early days and we’ll move on to Thursday now.”
ROWE MOTOR OIL PREMIERSHIP R1
LEICESTER 57: Ryan Douglas 15, Kyle Howarth 11, Sam Masters 9+2, Drew Kemp 9+1, Nick Morris 7+2, Dan Thompson 5+2, Dan Gilkes 1.
NORTHAMPTON 33: Troy Batchelor 9, Jaimon Lidsey 7+1, Kye Thomson 6, Michael Palm Toft 4+2, Luke Harrison 4+1, Nicolai Klindt 3, Matej Zagar r/r.