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Rebels tame Fen Tigers on wet track

From the Burnham & Highbridge Weekly News, first published Saturday 1st Apr 2006.

Premier Trophy: Somerset Mike Manning Audio Rebels 50, Mildenhall Fen Tigers 43

ON A wet night, it was remarkable that speedway took place at the Oak Tree Arena on Friday. Praise must be given to the Somerset promotion and the track staff, who must have worked wonders in preparing the surface.

Credit must also go to the riders in overcoming the conditions and giving it a go. Once proceedings had started, the rain held off and there was plenty of good racing, with the Rebels maintaining their 100% home record, despite the absence of the injured Pavel Ondrasik and Jamie Smith.

The first three races saw the Rebels sprint into a 13-5 lead and an easy home victory looked on the cards.

Coming into heat five, Mildenhall were ten points down, so Jason Lyons took the tactical ride. He had been excluded in his first race, so the pressure was really on him. However, he stormed to victory and earned his team a 7-2 heat advantage.

Somerset responded with maximum points in heat six through Magnus Zetterstrom and Stephan Katt. The popular German looked as if he had hardly been away from British speedway and seemed a very capable replacement for Ondrasik.

There was drama in heat eight, when Jason King came to the line for a tactical ride. As the green light came on, he signalled to the referee that his bike was on fire. The tapes rose and the starting marshall had to race to put out the fire, with a clearly-unhappy King. It was a torrid meeting for the ex-Rebel, who claimed just a single point from his night's work.

In heat ten, "Zorro" Zetterstrom suffered a rare defeat, when Shaun Tacey took the victory, although he was very much under pressure for the four laps.

Heat 12 was an absolute corker, with all four riders tightly packed and positions inter-changing regularly. However, it was the Mildenhall duo of Armstrong and Tacey who finally got the upper hand against Barker and Katt and now the Rebels' lead was cut to three points.

The home side wrapped up the match points in heat 14, when Paul Fry and Simon Walker raced to a 4-2. "Zorro" took the final heat, despite close attention from Lyons, and, with Glenn Cunningham getting the better of Daniel King for third, it was a Rebels' victory by seven points.

Everyone in the Somerset team contributed to the win, but again Walker deserves a mention for his paid 11. He had to cover Smith's rides in the main and scored some critical points.

Scores: Somerset 50 (M Zetterstrom 5r 14, S Katt 5r 6+2, J Smith r/r, P Fry 4r 8, G Cunningham 5r 9, S Walker 7r 9+2, B Barker 4r 4+1), Mildenhall 43 (J Lyons 4r 13, J King 4r 1, S Tacey 4r 7+2, J Brundle 3r 2, D King 5r 7+1, J Armstrong 7r 13, B Burchatt 3r 0).

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