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Somerset Rebels v Mildenhall Fen Tigers
Premier Trophy (Group), 31 March 2006
Oak Tree Arena, Somerset

Somerset 50
1Magnus Zetterstrom33233 ..140
2Stephan Katt12*21*0 ..62
4Paul Fry3023. ..80
5Glenn Cunningham33201 ..90
6Simon Walker32*200 1*192
7Ben Barker111*1. ..41
Mildenhall 43
1Jason LyonsT6^322 ..130
2Jason King01X^0. ..10
3Shaun Tacey11*32*. ..72
4James Brundle020.. ..20
5Daniel King2131*0 ..71
6Jon Armstrong22R31 32130
7Barry Burchatt000.. ..00

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

It was another rain-soaked track that faced the two teams. Somerset, having already lost Pavel Ondrasik, were tonight also without Jaimie Smith following his injury at King’s Lynn on Wednesday. They used R/R in his stead with Stephan Katt replacing Pavel Ondrasik at number 2. Mildenhall had no such problems and tracked a full strength side.

Somerset were quickly into their stride and gained heat advantages in all of the opening four heats. It didn’t help Mildenhall’s cause when Jason Lyons was excluded for tape touching in the opening heat. The Fen Tigers decided to replace him with Jon Armstrong and he managed to split the home pairing of Magnus Zetterstrom and Stephan Katt for a 4-2. It was Armstrong again out in heat 2 and he repeated his second place of heat 1 by splitting the home reserves for another Rebels 4-2 as Somerset doubled their lead to four points. They doubled it again to eight points when Paul Fry and Simon Walker led Shaun Tacey home for a 5-1, Walker doing extremely well to hold off Tacey. Glenn Cunningham won heat 4 from Daniel King with Ben Barker picking up the third place point for another 4-2 to the home side which took the score after the opening four heats to 17-7.

Mildenhall stopped the rot in heat 5. Jason Lyons took a TR and scored all six points winning from Simon Walker. Jason King was third, though, so the Fen Tigers took a 2-7 halving their deficit to only 5 points. However Somerset hit back quickly with another 5-1 in heat 6 thanks to Magnus Zetterstrom and Stephan Katt from Daniel King to increase their lead to 9 points. After this the visitors’ resistance stiffened. They shared heat 7 when James Brundle and Shaun Tacey followed Glenn Cunningham home for a 3-3 then, in heat 8, Jason King was given a TR. Rather bizarrely his bike caught fire as the tapes rose and he was excluded losing any advantage the visitors might have gained from the TR. Jon Armstrong came to the rescue, though, by winning the race for another shared heat which brought the score after eight heats to 30-21.

Mildenhall then pulled two points back in heat 9 won by Daniel King from Paul Fry with the ubiquitous Armstrong taking third place from Simon Walker for the 2-4. Shaun Tacey then pulled off an unexpected heat win over Magnus Zetterstrom to share the points in heat 10 and Jason Lyons made it four race winners on the trot for the visitors in heat 11 ending Glenn Cunningham’s winning streak for another shared heat. It became five race winners in a row when on-fire reserve Jon Armstrong won heat 12. He was followed home by his partner, Shaun Tacey, as the Fen Tigers came roaring back into contention with a 1-5 ahead of Ben Barker and Stephan Katt reducing the difference to three points. The score after 12 heats was now 39-36.

Magnus Zetterstrom made amends for his heat 10 lapse by winning heat 13 but Jason Lyons and Daniel King followed him home ahead of Glenn Cunningham for a 3-3 which maintained the three point gap. Finally Somerset sealed the match with a 4-2 in heat 14. Paul Fry beat Jon Armstrong, taking his seventh ride, with Simon Walker third to stretch the lead to five points with one heat to go. The Rebels finished with another 4-2 when Magnus Zetterstrom beat Jason Lyons with Glenn Cunningham third.

Match Report by Merlin