Stars’ winning run ended after battling display

King’s Lynn ended the season with a battling effort at Leicester which saw them go down 48-42 and just miss out on the aggregate point.The PSH Environmental Stars’ five-match winning run ended in the East Midlands but they put on a committed performance to ask plenty of questions of the play-off qualifiers and were leading by six points halfway through the meeting.Unfortunately, they had no answer to Lions No.1 Max Fricke who raced to an 18-point maximum, and after sealing the result on the night with a 5-1 from Fricke and Sam Masters in Heat 15.The same combination then got the better of Stars pairing Niels-Kristian Iversen and Chris Harris in a Super Heat for the aggregate point with the home and away scores this week having been tied overall.Manager Rob Lyon said: “It was a great meeting and what a way to finish off with a Super Heat, who would have thought that?“At one point we were comfortable, but Max Fricke was superb tonight and their top end just had too much firepower for us.“But the boys did a great job again. They all gave 100 per cent effort so I’m really pleased with them, and taking it to the last heat shows the form we’ve been in for the last five or six meetings. It was a good effort.” But it was a real team effort by Lynn, whose whole team scored between five and eight points – and three 5-1s in the opening five races offered the prospect of a surprise away win at one of the league’s toughest venues to visit. Stars suffered misfortune in Heat 1 when Harris and Richard Lawson clashed on the back straight and both came down, and even though it was Lawson attempting to make a passing move, Harris was the rider to be disqualified.However, the home side then suffered a succession of problems with Craig Cook crashing out of the meeting in Heat 2, as Stars took the lead with a 5-1 from Lewis Kerr and Simon Lambert in the re-run.Lions heat-leader Ryan Douglas fell on the second turn of Heat 4 and was disqualified, with Jan Kvech and Kerr taking maximum points in the re-run, and that was followed up by a great effort from Harris and Anders Rowe to race to a 5-1 over Masters and Luke Becker. Stars were into a surprise six-point lead and that was maintained despite Fricke’s wins in Heats 6 and 7 as Lawson fell in the first of those, and Fricke’s tactical substitute victory in the next was neutralised by Iversen and Norick Blodorn keeping Douglas at the back.Leicester did fashion a response with a 4-2 in Heat 8 as Lawson passed Kerr for the win, before Kvech was beaten by Masters and Becker on the opening lap of Heat 9 to level the scores. Leicester edged ahead with 4-2 in Heat 10, Iversen splitting Fricke and Lawson, but Lynn were close to levelling in the next as Harris passed Douglas only for the home rider to hit back in a fine race, and they did go all-square again when Iversen defeated Masters in Heat 12 with Lambert in third place.A nip-and-tuck contest went back the Lions’ way in Heat 13 despite a forceful first turn by Harris, as Fricke came through on bend four to lead with Douglas in third place, and Becker kept them ahead by winning Heat 14 ahead of Blodorn and Kerr. Gating was of crucial importance in the decider and there was no stopping Fricke and Masters when they hit the front in Heat 15 to seal Leicester’s win on the night, and to the Stars’ frustration it was the same outcome in the Super Heat for the aggregate point.Leicester 48: Max Fricke 18, Sam Masters 11+1, Luke Becker 7+2, Richard Lawson 5, Ryan Douglas 4, Joe Thompson 3, Craig Cook 0.KIng’s Lynn 42: Lewis Kerr 8+2, Niels-Kristian Iversen 7+1, Chris Harris 6+1, Anders Rowe 6+1, Jan Kvech 5+1, Simon Lambert 5+1, Norick Blodorn 5.Aggregate scores tied – Leicester win the aggregate point after winning a Super Heat 7-2