Tears of joy as Belle Vue Aces win first Speedway league title for 29 years

After four agonising play-off defeats in the past seven years, there was a feeling among Belle Vue Aces fans that their day would never come. Despite being the oldest and most successful speedway club in the country, a whole generation of supporters were yet to see them win a league championship.

Throughout the 1930s, they won six titles, bagging another in 1963, and adding three-in-a-row in the 70s, with the 'three-peat' of 1970, 1971, 1972 still a great source of pride to the fanbase. However since then, it has dried up with just two titles in the past 50 years (1982 and 1993) prior to last night (Thursday October 13).

Those old enough to have been there for their last title win in 1993 have had an agonising 29 year wait for another and the near misses in recent years are likely to have made last night's victory all the sweeter. In the second leg of the grand final last night, the Aces lost 50-40 to Sheffield Tigers but had still done enough for gold, having sailed into a 51-39 lead in the first leg - meaning they came out on top 91-89 on aggregate.

READ MORE : Belle Vue Aces win first Speedway Premiership title since 1993 with win over Sheffield Tigers

It was a nail-biting couple of hours for those who made the trip across the Pennines but Belle Vue eventually wrapped it all up with a race to spare. Australian Mark Lemon rode for the club in 2012 and has been the team manager since 2014 and in that time has overseen many highs including a Knockout Cup win in 2017, but he has also experienced the lows of play-off heartbreak on more occasions than he would wish.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News after leading the club to their 13th league title in their 94-year history, he admitted that he was "emotionally