THERE is no possibility of familiarity breeding contempt as the first silverware of the 2025 ROWE Motor Oil Premiership goes on the line live on BSN this week.
Between them King’s Lynn and Leicester have appeared in a grand total of three top tier cup finals – the last 25 years ago.
The Stars are two-time winners, beating Reading in 1977 and Coventry 23 years later while the Lions’ sole final appearance was 1975s 16-point defeat at the hands of a Peter Collins-inspired Belle Vue side.
King’s Lynn also enjoyed four second tier final victories in the first decade of the century and reached the League Cup final in 2022.
They go into tonight's first leg in front of the BSN cameras at the Adrian Flux Arena as slight underdogs despite the stunning second leg draw at Ipswich which secured a five-point aggregate victory.
That maintained Lynn’s unbeaten run to the big night having easily accounted for Oxford Spires home and away in the quarter-finals.
Opponents Leicester are also unbeaten in this year’s competition, taking both legs against Birmingham and then stunning Sheffield by winning at Owlerton after beating the Tigers by 18 points at the Hydroscand Arena.
Leicester go into the tie in fine form with five wins from their last seven outings – including a second triumph at Sheffield last Thursday – having passed the 50-point mark in both of their home meetings with the Stars in 2025.
King’s Lynn’s managed a two-point victory when the sides met in Norfolk in April, a Premiership clash remembered as much for being the night that Ben Cook broke his wrist, an injury which effectively ended his British season.
Former Star and current Sheffield Tiger Lewi Kerr guests in place of Cook for the Stars who were handed a pre-final boost when skipper Niels-Kristian Iversen showed no ill-effects from his recent rib injury despite two gruelling Polish League within the space of three days over the weekend.
Leicester have Ipswich’s Tom Brennan guesting for the injured Luke Becker.
Stars’ boss Rob Lyon is happy to wear the underdog tag again this week.
He said: “This team is full of surprises and I think we’ve shocked a few people in the past few weeks, so there’s no reason why we can’t do it again.
“It’s great for the fans and the club to be in this final, it’s a bit of kudos to get there especially with the way we got there, and it gives us a really good week to look forward to.
“I just hope we can pull it off and bring the Cup home to celebrate with everyone. It would give us something to build on for the future. But there’s a tough week of racing to come first.”
For opposite number Stewart Dickson it is a chance to build on last year’s Grand Final – but this time wants to strike gold rather than silver.
He said: “I’ve said many times the reason I’m at Leicester is that I want to bring success and trophies. This is a real opportunity to bring silverware to the club, but I’m sure King’s Lynn will be thinking the same.
“If we don’t get any bad luck we might just get our hands on the trophy.
“It’s fair to say a lot of my riders at the top end get a lot of praise from me, but it was our reserves Drew Kemp and Joe Thompson who won us the meeting at Sheffield.
“That highlighted the sort of performances we are putting in, and we will have do that again this week if we’re going to win this Knockout Cup.”
BSN will be showing both legs of the final live and exclusive. The meetings are included in the Total Season and Premiership passes or can be bought individually here
King’s Lynn: Niels-Kristian Iversen, Richard Lawson, Chris Harris, Lewis Kerr, Jan Kvech, Nicolai Klindt, Luke Harrison.
Leicester: Max Fricke, Tom Brennan, Ryan Douglas, Kyle Howarth, Sam Masters, Drew Kemp, Joe Thompson.
Words by George Dodds.
Images by Taylor Lanning.