Newcastle Diamonds 54
Leicester Lions 39Premier League Championship Play-Off Group Stage
Top Scorers:
Newcastle Diamonds - Mark Lemon 12 1, Claes Nedermark 11 1
Leicester Lions - Kauko Nieminen 15 1, Linus Eklof 7 3
With the League Championship out of mathematical reach for the Newcastle Diamonds in the new play-off system - despite finishing on top of the final Premier League table - the Tynesiders had pride on their minds to avenge the 50-40 beating they took at Leicester on Saturday night.
In their league visit to Brough the Lions fell foul of a rampant home side who hammered them 62-31 so they too had a point to prove, but in Heat One it was all square 3-3 with a great win for Claes Nedermark from the gate but Stuart Robson found the going tough struggling to get on terms with Linus Eklof in third.
Heat Two had to be re-started after Lewis Blackbird spun on bend two of the second lap causing the race to be halted, and in the re-run guest for Newcastle from Edinburgh shot away for the three points in a home 4-2 putting the Diamonds into the lead 7-5.
That lead was extended to six after a solid 5-1 from Christian Henry, fresh back from a minor injury the night before at Leicester and Mark Lemon taking a good second over Jan Graversen moving the score onto 12-6.
Ludvig Lindgren made a massive move round Magnus Karlsson to lead well and win as Wethers tried everything in his ammo box to nip hard under Karlsson but just failed to take second on the line in the 4-2 taking the score on to 16-8.
Kauko Niemen flew from the Heat Five gate followed by a swift Eklof up front to form a solid barrier to protect their 1-5 from Henry and Lemon, the former falling on the last lap to narrow the score to 17-13.
Two shared races followed but going into the first bend Eklof spun 360 degrees and fell to be excluded by the referee from the re-run in which Nedermark and Wethers joined forces in a determined home 5-1 to restore the eight point lead 28-20.
Lemon in Heat Nine and Robson in the 10th finally got back to winning ways taking respective heat wins, the latter with Nedermark taking a second behind his partner to score four races unbeaten with the Heat 10 5-1 taking the score to 37-23 leading to a tactical ride in the 11th for Nieminen.
And the tactical worked brilliantly for the Loins who banged in a massive 1-8 narrowing the gap to 38-31 with four races left on the card.
Two 5-1s in Heats 12 and 14 sealed the Diamonds win with maximum play-off points, but the final lay just too far away from Newcastle who now turn their attentions to the Knockout Cup in which they have the Workington Comets next Sunday against Workington's Comets in the semi final first leg at Brough Park with a later start time again of 7.30pm.
Team manager George English said: "Well at least we got a good win tonight but the damage was already done and we're out of the League Title chase for 2012, which is a major disappointment to our table-topping squad, but that's the rules. Now we will pick ourselves up and aim for a cup final place once we dispose of the Comets."
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