Stars storm through to KO Cup semi-finals

King’s Lynn’s terrific start to the season continued with a 53-37 win at Oxford to complete the job of progression to the KO Cup semi-finals.The PSH Environmental Stars matched the result they achieved in the first leg at the Adrian Flux Arena to set up a mouthwatering last-four clash with local rivals Ipswich, who demolished Belle Vue in the other tie in this half of the draw.Stars had five different race winners at Cowley, with Niels-Kristian Iversen taking top billing as he raced to 14 points out of a possible 15, only missing out on a full maximum to home captain Maciej Janowski in Heat 7.Flying reserve Chris Harris was in double figures once again with 11+1, and although Jan Kvech didn’t win a race himself, he was involved in 5-1s in three successive outings as the visitors pulled clear.Team boss Rob Lyon said: “It was a solid performance, and with the way we’ve set the team up it’s worked really well in the first two matches.“Everybody has chipped in with good, solid points all the way through really. Oxford had some bad luck tonight with Peter Kildemand crashing out, and one or two other bits, but our team rode well and we deserved to win.“Niels is riding a bit like the Niels of old at the moment, which is a good sign. As we know, he rode pretty well in the second half of last year, and he’s continued that confidence and form, and it’s really good to see. He looks good, he looks quite dominant, and it bodes well. “We knew realistically the tie was ours to lose, but we said we wanted to try and win tonight and keep the run going. That’s what we wanted to concentrate on, and if we could do that there would be no worries anyway, so that’s what we did and it worked out okay, and we’re really happy.” There were problems for the home side with an assortment of incidents, the most serious being the loss of Peter Kildemand after a crash in Heat 3 when he came down on the fourth bend.But the Stars, 16 points up from the first leg, were already ahead on the night after former Spires duo Harris and Ashton Boughen raced to another Heat 2 5-1, and the re-run of the third saw Iversen hold off Charles Wright in a photo finish.Oxford briefly narrowed the gap on the night to two points with Francis Gusts impressing again, but home No.1 Rohan Tungate came to grief in Heat 6 after Harris and Kvech had moved past him to set up another 5-1. The same combination combined for maximum points again in Heat 9, this time after a battle between Harris and Wright that was resolved in the Lynn rider’s favour on the second lap.The Spires’ troubles continued when Erik Riss looped at the start of Heat 10 and was disqualified as Iversen and Ben Cook put Stars ten points up. Although two Oxford wins did follow with Janowski passing Richard Lawson in Heat 11 and Wright holding Harris off in the next, Lynn were still closing in on a win on the night.That was secured in Heat 13 with an excellent 5-1 from Cook and Kvech over the Spires’ top two, before Iversen took control of the closing stages as he won both of the last two races, Wright preventing another Stars maximum in the finale when he got the better of Harris. With KO Cup progression confirmed, the Stars now get down to ROWE Motor Oil Premiership business at home to champions Belle Vue on Monday.Oxford 37: Maciej Janowski 9+1, Francis Gusts 9+1, Charles Wright 8, Erik Riss 7+1, Rohan Tungate 4, Luke Killeen 0, Peter Kildemand 0.King’s Lynn 53: Niels-Kristian Iversen 14, Chris Harris 11+1, Richard Lawson 9, Jan Kvech 7+3, Ben Cook 5+2, Ashton Boughen 4+1, Nicolai Klindt 3+1.King’s Lynn win 106-74 on aggregate.