PREVIEW: Season finale for Oxford Spires

OXS Oxford Spires will bring down the curtain on top-flight speedway at Oxford Stadium this season, when they host in-form Leicester Lions in the ROWE Motor Oil Premiership at Sandy Lane on Thursday evening (7.30pm).

Spires have missed out on a play-off position in their first season, but are hoping for a victory over Lions which would secure a final position of fifth out of seven clubs in the final Premiership table.

Spires are due to be at full strength. No 1 Rohan Tungate is set to return from injury after missing the away trips to Leicester and King’s Lynn last week, while Rising Star Luke Killeen already returned to action at the weekend with the Oxford Chargers.

The in-form Maciej Janowski – who scored 15 points at Leicester and 14+2 at King’s Lynn – will occupy the No 5 berth, while skipper Chris Harris will ride at No 3.

For much of the season, Spires and Lions seemed to be fighting for the fourth and final qualifying play-off spot. But Lions – who were well fancied before the start of the season – have hit a purple patch of form, are unbeatable in their last nine ROWE Motor Oil Premierships matches and still have a chance of topping the regular table prior to the play-offs.

Oxford team manager Peter Schroeck said: “We may have missed out on the play-offs, but I think Oxford Spires can still look back on our first season with some pride.

“Our season has not been a disaster by any means – there are two other teams in the league who would gladly have swapped our season for theirs. There’s been tremendous entertainment in the Spires meetings at Oxford, which have been well supported by the fans, and we’ve put in the building blocks for future success.

“Leicester have a lot of quality in their line-up and congratulations to them on making the play-offs. It’s a new promotion there this year and they deserve to have qualified.

“The Lions have been in great form lately, but we’d love to put an end to their winning run and finish the season for Spires on a high.

“There’s still a lot more to come this season, with Monarch Cheetahs aiming for silverware in both the Cab Direct Championship and the Knockout Cup, plus the British Under-19 Championship. But this is the last chance to see top-flight speedway at Oxford this year, and our skipper Chris ‘Bomber’ Harris and of the rest of Spires want to sign off in style.”

Tickets are already on sale on the Oxford Speedway website at https://oxfordspeedway.club/tickets/

Admission is available at the early bird price of £22 for all adults, which increases to £24 on Race Day. All under-16s go free. A reminder that Oxford Speedway is online ticket sales only – tickets remain on sale on the website until the start-time of the meeting.

Teams:

OXS Oxford Spires: Rohan Tungate, Erik Riss, Chris Harris (C), Charles Wright, Maciej Janowski, Ashton Boughen, Luke Killeen (RS).

Watling JCB Leicester Lions: Max Fricke (C), Richard Lawson, Sam Masters, Luke Becker, Ryan Douglas, Craig Cook, Sam Hagon (RS).

(PHOTO by Steve Edmunds)