Somerset Rebels 51 Redcar Bears 42 (From Bridgwater Mercury)

Somerset Rebels 51 Redcar Bears 42

1:00pm Tuesday 20th September 2011 in Speedway

SOMERSET Rebels were taken to a last heat decider in their Premier League clash with Redcar Bears last Friday.

Both teams went into the match with injury problems, Somerset missing broken leg victim Christian Hefenbrock, for whom they used the rider replacement facility, and were also without their skipper, James Holder, who was suffering with a compression to the chest after his crash at Edinburgh.

However, the home side took all three points to continue their push for a top four finish, but it was not made an easy evening by the Bears.

The match opened with a share of the spoils as Østergaard took a comfortable heat 1 victory for the visitors.

But the Bears then got their noses in front in the next heat as Adam Roynon sped away from the tapes to make it two race winners on the bounce for Redcar.

That deficit was quickly turned into a two point lead for the Rebels as acting skipper for the night, Cory Gathercole, teamed up with Dakota North for the first ‘full house’ maximum heat win of the night, which was quickly followed by another for the home side in heat 4, this time courtesy of James Wright and Ashley Birks.

The Bears quickly hit back though with Østergaard and Roynon combining for a 5-1 heat win of their own.

From a position of seemingly controlling the match, the Rebels found themselves under pressure, with a trio of shared heats following.

But the home side made sure of the victory in heat 14, Gathercole overcoming mechanical gremlins that saw him retire from his 2nd and 3rd rides, to take the race win ahead of team mate Alex Davies.

* THE Rebels are also in action on Wednesday as they take on the Edinburgh Monarchs after comfortably beating them 57-38 two weeks ago.

Spokesman Debbie Hancock said: “In an ideal world we would not be facing Edinburgh again so soon after their previous visit here but a combination of poor weather back in July that put paid to the original staging of our first phase meeting with the Monarchs, and the availability of dates for the second phase matches has meant that the two fixtures have come about practically one on top of the other.”

The Rebels, however, are hoping to have skipper James Holder back in the side after missing the last two matches due to a chest injury sustained at Somerset’s recent first phase meeting at Edinburgh.