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Mildenhall Fen Tigers v Somerset Rebels
KO Cup (QF), 25 June 2006
West Row Stadium, Mildenhall

Mildenhall 40
1Jason Lyons126^30 ..120
2James Brundle01*21. ..41
3Daniel King30232 ..100
4Jason King2*21*1. ..62
5Brent Werner10^11. ..30
6Barry Burchatt002*0. ..21
7Jon Armstrong120R. ..30
Somerset 53
1Magnus Zetterstrom2*3321 ..111
2Emil Kramer3132*3 ..121
3Stephan Katt11213 ..80
5Glenn Cunningham3330. ..90
6(g)Lee Smart2*0000 ..21
7Ben Barker32*310 2*.112

* = BP. ^ = TR . ! = TS (15m Handicap). # = TR (Points Not Doubled). & = TS (Points Not Doubled, 15m Handicap).

Mildenhall were at full strength but Somerset were without Glen Phillips who was riding long track and used R/R in his place at number 2. Emil Kramer made his debut for the Rebels at number 4 in place of the injured Paul Fry. Lee Smart was at reserve as a guest in place of Simon Walker who is out injured.

Mildenhall had done well to limit the Rebels to an 11 point lead in the first leg on Friday night but any chance they might have had of pulling the deficit back disappeared in the first five heats when they found themselves trailing by another 10 points. It got worse as the Rebels won with ease. Once again Somerset showed that they have the Midas touch when it comes to signing riders to cover for their injuries. Emil Kramer, replacing Paul Fry, dropped only one point to the opposition on his way to top scoring for the Rebels on his debut.

In heat 1 Emil Kramer made a dream start to his Somerset career by winning the race with Magnus Zetterstrom second ahead of the challenging Jason Lyons for a 1-5. They added another 1-5 in the reserves race when Ben Barker and their guest, Lee Smart, rather surprisingly headed home Jon Armstrong to make the score 2-10. The Fen Tigers hit back with their own 5-1 in heat 3 thanks to the two Kings with Daniel winning from Jason as Stephan Katt finished third. Any joy from that result was greeted with dismay at the result from heat 4 as Glenn Cunningham and Ben Barker raced away for another 1-5 ahead of Brent Werner to make the score after the opening four races 8-16.

Bad went to worse when the Rebels thumped in a 2-4 to stretch their lead to 10 points in heat 5. Magnus Zetterstrom won the race from Jason King who passed Emil Kramer who took third ahead of Daniel King. Glenn Cunningham made it five race winners from six heats for the Rebels in heat 6 when he beat Jason Lyons and James Brundle for a shared heat. In heat 7 Brent Werner took a TR as Ben Barker took the R/R for Glen Phillips to join Stephan Katt. This turned out to be a disaster for Mildenhall as Werner finished stone cold last. Ben Barker won again (he’d better watch or he’ll be told to get into the main body of the team!). He beat Jon Armstrong with his partner, Stephan Katt, taking third place for another 2-4 for the Rebels which now saw them 12 points ahead. Their lead went to 14 after heat 8. Emil Kramer beat James Brundle for the Rebels’ seventh race winner with Ben Barker losing his unbeaten tag by finishing behind James Brundle. This took the score after eight races to 17-31 with Mildenhall effectively out of the competition.

Somerset just kept on winning races. It was Glenn Cunningham in heat 9 heading home the Kings for a shared race. In heat 10 Jason Lyons took Mildenhall’s second TR. At last the home fans had something to cheer about as Jason Lyons won the heat from Stephan Katt. James Brundle finished third so the Fen Tigers took a 7-2 to cut the visitors’ lead to nine points. The cheering soon turned to groans as Somerset punched home another 1-5 in heat 11. Again it was Brent Werner who had to follow home both Rebels as Magnus Zetterstrom and Emil Kramer took maximum points. But it was back to the cheering in heat 12 when Daniel King won the race and Barry Burchatt did well to relegate Stephan Katt to third place for a home 5-1 which took the score after 12 races to 33-42.

Jason Lyons won heat 13 ending Magnus Zetterstrom’s winning run in the process and Brent Werner finished third ahead of Glenn Cunningham who was also unbeaten to that point. The 4-2 made the score 37-44 giving the Fen Tigers an outside chance of winning the match with two 5-1s. However Stephan Katt put paid to that idea by winning heat 14 as R/R and Ben Barker completed a very impressive meeting by taking second place ahead of Jason King for another Rebels’ 1-5. Emil Kramer won heat 15 and it looked as though Magnus Zetterstrom would follow him home for a 1-5 until Daniel King passed him on the second lap. With Jason Lyons finishing last the visitors finished with a 2-4 giving them a bigger winning margin by which they won the first leg.

Match Report by Merlin