Somerset race to biggest home win.

The Somerset 'Mike Manning Audio' Rebels cruised to their biggest home victory of the season against what was, quite frankly, a very poor Edinburgh Monarchs septet, which if it had not been for the efforts of their new signing, Kristian Lund, and, to a lesser extent, Swede Daniel Nermark, would have been on the receiving end of an even heavier defeat.

The Rebels provided 14 out of the 15 heat winners, with each team member being paid for at least one paid victory, and secured heat advantages in 11 races, figures which speak for themselves in this one sided contest. The die was cast as early as the opening two heats with Somerset recording maximum 5-1 heat advantages in both races, the Monarchs night of woe started in the opening heat when new signing Lund tried to anticipate the start, but only succeeded in touching the tapes which caused his exclusion from the race. By heat 5 the Monarchs were already resorting to tactical rides, with their captain, Theo Pijper donning the 'black and white' helmet colours, but this move failed miserably as the Dutchman trailed in last. So dominant were the Rebels that Edinburgh's only successes of the night came in heats 7, when they recorded their own heat advantage, a 5-3 courtesy of a tactical 4 point 2nd place by Cameron Woodward, and in heat 8 when Lund took the chequered flag for the Monarch's only heat win of the night.

By the end of heat 8, however, the Rebels had opened a 12 point lead, with the scores standing in their favour 31-19, which was further increased in heat 9 when Paul Fry and Ritchie Hawkins, maintaining his excellent form of recent weeks, scored another 5-1 heat victory, to put Somerset almost out of sight of their Scottish opponents. Further 4-2 heat advantages followed in the next 3 heats to assure the home side victory on the night with 3 heats still remaining, with the biggest cheer of the night coming when Somerset reserve, 17 year old Lee Smart, held off the Monarch's number 1, Theo Pijper for 3rd place in heat 11. With thoughts in mind to build up as big a lead as possible to defend the bonus point when the clubs meet at Armadale in August, the Rebels pressed home their advantage in those remaining 3 heats, and heat 13 showed why the Somerset pairing of Zetterstrom and Cunningham were runners up in the recent Premier League Pairs Championship as they rode an excellent team race to shut out the Monarchs duo and take the match score to 53-27 in their favour.

With thoughts of reaching the 60 point barrier now a reality, Paul Fry took an excellent victory in heat 14, and Lee Smart yet again coming to the fore to thwart Edinburgh's Kristian Lund's attempt to score double points from a substitute ride. The final heat saw Somerset hit the 60 point mark for the first time this season as 'Zorro' took the race win to record his 2nd successive home maximum, but unfortunately Ritchie Hawkins could not emulate his maximum performances of the previous home match as the Edinburgh pairing of Lund and Nermark managed to hold him off and share the heat.

So with the match ending with the Rebels running out comfortable winners 60-32, and both Magnus Zetterstrom and Glenn Cunningham finishing the meeting with maximum scores to their name, this was a good all round team performance and whilst it would be wrong to single out any individual for praise, special mention must be made of Rebel reserve, Lee Smart, who was awarded the Rider of the Night award for his best home performance of the season, which can only give the Swindon based youngster the confidence to build upon for the 2nd half of the season.