SPEEDWAY:

Leicester Lions reached their first-ever Premiership Grand Final after Australian racer Max Fricke continued his excellent run of form by bagging 13+3 points. The Lions overcame an eight-point first-leg deficit with a 51-39 win over Ipswich on Thursday night.

The Lions will meet either regular season champions Sheffield or Manchester’s Belle Vue in a two-legged final in nine days’ time.

MEN’S CRICKET:

With just two games to go, Somerset are now only eight points behind Surrey in the County Championship Division One after they crushed the defending champions by 111 runs on Thursday.

Somerset have yet to win a County Championship title in their 149-year history. At the other end of the table, Kent are teetering on the brink of relegation after drawing with fellow strugglers Nottinghamshire.

CYCLING:

Mischa Bredewold defends her European road race title on Saturday afternoon in Belgium as part of an eight-woman Dutch team that includes Ellen van Dijk and last year’s runner-up Lorena Wiebes.

World champion Lotte Kopecky is not on the start list. Edoardo Affini followed up his gold medal in the men’s time trial with another podium-topping performance for Italy in the mixed relay team time trial on Thursday.

MEN’S RUGBY UNION:

Reigning champions Fiji are up against the USA in Saturday’s first semi-final of the Pacific Nations Cup in Tokyo.

Fiji beat Samoa and Tonga on their way to the last four, while the Americans saw off Canada but lost to Japan.

Sunday morning’s second semi-final will be between Japan and Samoa. At tenth in the international rankings, one place above Wales, Fiji are the highest-ranked Pacific team.