Premier League

Somerset Rebels 38, Plymouth Devils 52

SOMERSET Rebels suffered two defeats in two days at the hands of the Plymouth Devils, losing their unbeaten home run in the process.

The Rebels went down to a shock 38-52 defeat on Friday, their first home defeat in over two years, before losing 57-36 in the return fixture the following night.

For Friday’s meet, the Rebels were without Charles Wright, who was injured whilst riding for his Elite League club, Swindon.

As a determined Devils side roared out of the traps, thing went wrong for the home side right from the very first heat.

From the tapes, Ryan Fisher and Morten Risager hit the front and led to the turn.

Meanwhile Brady Kurtz, recovering from a slow start, charged down the back straight trying to make up lost ground, only to run very wide out off the third turn, and dramatically slow almost to a stop.

After a very hot day the track was heavily watered, and it appeared as though Kurtz got completely filled in.

He did get going again, but was a long way behind when he retired on the last lap, with the Devils pair a long way clear at the front to hit maximum points.

The end result leaves the Rebels in fourth place in the table, but with plenty of matches in hand on some of those above them - and with all the first three teams in the table having lost points at home, the Rebels are still in a good place.

The Devils win takes them to one place below the play-off places, and like the Rebels they have plenty of matches in hand over some of those above.

The Plymouth septet produced a stunning performance, with Morten Risager leading the scoring with a fabulous 11+2 hauls, something which he admitted himself he wasn’t expecting, as the Oaktree Arena has never been a happy hunting ground for him.

He was ably backed up by the rest, with Jack Holder, Ryan Fisher and Kyle Newman, all hitting good scores.

For the Rebels, only Brady Kurtz produced double figures, with 10-points.

His last two wins earned him the Somerset ‘Rider of the Night’ award from meeting sponsors, SBS EPoS, of West Wellow, Hampshire.

Rebels Team Manager, Garry May, said: “Of course it was disappointing to lose tonight, but Plymouth were the much better side and we had one of those rare night when it seemed like every one of our boys had a bad night at the office.

“It doesn’t help when you are chasing the match and three of your riders get penalised for tapes offences, but that is no excuse for our defeat, we paid the price for the fact we just didn’t perform on the night.

“The defeat probably seems all the worse as it is just over two years since we last lost a competitive meeting at the Oaktree Arena, but when we last lost at home back in 2013, we went on to win the Premier League Championship that year, so perhaps this might be an omen and a case of every cloud having a silver lining.”