SHEFFIELD were held to a draw in their Challenge fixture at Leicester which opened up the Lions' new Beaumont Park stadium.
A capacity 4,500 crowd were present to see the return of speedway after a 28-year absence, and the early stages were dominated by Sheffield as the Tigers opened up with two 5-1s in the first two races.
When Josh Auty re-passed former Sheffield man Richard Hall to win Heat 9, Tigers were ten points up, and skipper Ricky Ashworth then defeated Sergey Darkin with the Leicester No.1 going for double-points.
But there was a dramatic late Lions’ revival thanks to Darkin and Richard Sweetman who took 5-1s in both Heats 13 and 15, meaning in the final analysis that Emiliano Sanchez’s last-gasp pass on Hall in the penultimate race was the move which saved a draw.
LEICESTER 46: Richard Sweetman 13+1, Sergey Darkin 13+1, Richard Hall 9, Ilya Bondarenko 4, Jamie Courtney 4, John Oliver 2, Jan Graversen 1+1.
