SGB Premiership
Rye House Rockets 48, Somerset Rebels 42

THE ‘Cases’ Somerset Rebels provided stubborn opposition to Rye House, taking their Premiership meeting to a last heat decider in the soaring Hertfordshire heat.

None were more stubborn than Jake Allen who, in trying to slip up the tight inside line left open by number one Rocket Chris Harris in the opening heat, found his route cut off and high-sided into the fence, bringing Harris down too.

The incident ended the afternoon's action for a sore Allen and his remaining rides had to be covered by the two reserves.

Team manager Garry May was able, however, to relieve Bradley Wilson-Dean of a programmed outing by deploying world champion Jason Doyle as a tactical substitute in an eventful ninth heat that took six attempts to complete.

Movement at the tapes for which referee Chris Gay could not apportion blame forced the first re-start, in which Doyle was then adjudged to have moved.

Kasprzak picked up a warning when all four returned for start number three and then Doyle was squeezed out by Kennett and Kasprzak in the next re-run.

After dusting himself down, Doyle returned to the familiar start line only to crash out unaided on the apex of the third and fourth turn, causing the race to be stopped in-spite of his efforts to try and clear the track.

There was no place for him at attempt six but sole Rebel Richard Lawson saved the day with a deserved win.

Charles Wright and Jack Holder knuckled down for a Rebels 5-1 in heat 10 to close the gap to just two points but Nicholls headed home Doyle, the Somerset captain having to pull off a great move to overcome Busk-Jakobsen to limit the home side to a 4-2.

Two heats later, Nicholls again lowered Doyle's colours, this time making a good pass of his own on the second lap.

Trailing now by six again, the Rebels gave themselves hope with a superb result in heat 14, Wilson-Dean blasting round the outside and Holder nipping under Jakobsen to join him and close that deficit back to two.

But Kasprzak and Nicholls made the telling starts in heat 15 for a closing match-winning 5-1 that lifted them off the bottom of the table and above the seventh-placed Rebels by a point.

Team manager Garry May had mixed emotions. He was pleased they came so close but disappointed they were limited to just a consolation point.

He said: "Losing Jake early on didn't help our cause on what was a very hot day and having riders taking extra rides to cover was not the ideal situation, but Jonas and Bradley equipped themselves well.

"We knew it would be a fairly even meeting and it proved to be but getting the meeting to a last heat decider and then losing out is always a disappointment."

Results
Rye House - 48: S. Nicholls 14+1, K. Kasprzak 13, C. Harris 7, N. Busk-Jakobsen 5, A. Summers 5, E. Kennett 4+3, M. Clegg 0.
Somerset - 42: J. Doyle 9, C. Wright 8, B. Wilson-Dean 7+3, R. Lawson 7, J. Holder 6+1, J. Jeppesen 5+2, J. Allen 0.