Edinburgh Monarchs v Somerset Rebels

Somerset relied heavily on Jason Doyle again, but they had enough contribution from others to prevent Monarchs from completely killing them off in the first leg of the Premier Playoff semi-final.

At 43-17 after 10 heats it seemed to be going very much Monarchs? way, but the Rebels rallied and knocked five points off Monarchs? lead before the end.

Our guest Tomasz Piszcz rode across the first bend in heat 1 and took Doyle into the fence, but there was no serious damage done. Doyle sped to a win in the rerun with Derek Sneddon not far back, and Piszcz held on to the point.

Aaron Summers jetted away with heat 2 after an excellent gate, while Derek battled to try to pass Werner without success.

Two 5-1s followed pretty comfortably with neither Kramer nor Frampton looking on form. Werner was the early leader in the first running of heat 4 but he came a cropper at the end of lap two.

Doyle won against the formidable Fisher-Tully pair in heat 5, and there was a surprise in heat 6 as Kroger shot away from gate 4. Piszcz was the early challenger but he dropped back, and eventually Matthew Wethers took up the chase and finished within a length of the German.

We were back on the 5-1 trail then with a vengeance, taking four in a row. Rebels didn?t risk their usual tactic of using Doyle as a TS on a track on which passing was not easy.

Unfortunately things went wrong in an overly eventful heat 11. Frampton was ruled out on two minutes, replaced by Werner, and Doyle took a TR. As soon as the tapes went up the red lights came on, and an exclusion for Derek Sneddon was announced for ?a starting infringement?.

This was later announced to be spinning his tyre after previously being warned. It is difficult to imagine any other ref than Jim McGregor getting involved in a match in this way.

Next, the Rebels gated and Matthew Wethers crashed trying an outside move on Werner off the fourth bend of lap two.

Finally Rebels took the 8-1 with Aaron Summers unsuccessfully trying to catch Werner.

It was gradually becoming obvious that gate 1 was unproductive, and Fisher missed the start badly off that grid in heat 12. He got himself in a tangle trying to recover, leaving Derek Sneddon to split race winner Kramer from Kroger.

Suddenly the match was turning but heat 13 turned it back in the other direction! This time Doyle was badly away from gate 1 and never improved on fourth place as Matthew Wethers and Tomasz Piszcz took our seventh 5-1.

The gates were playing a big part now and Kroger and Werner were away from gates 2 and 4 in heat 14. It took more than a lap for Sneddon and Tully to make much impression, but both passed Kroger, and with an amazing effort Andrew actually caught and passed Werner. Definitely the ride of the night.

We won the toss in heat 15 and took gates 2 and 4, which should have ensured at least a shared race, but it didn?t. Doyle won it and Kramer did well to take third off gate one.

So the Rebels finished much better than had seemed likely at the two-thirds mark, and we will see how things go on Wednesday at the OTA.

HERMISTON MONARCH OF THE MATCH: Andrew Tully

Edinburgh Monarchs v Somerset Rebels

Somerset return to Armadale on Friday for the first leg of the semi-final of the Play-offs to decide which Premier League team will qualify to meet the Elite League side losing out in the EL relegation Play-offs for possible promotion to the EL next season.

As Premier League winners the Monarchs were able to choose their opponents for this match from the other three qualifiers - Somerset, King?s Lynn and Rye House. Influenced by the 66-24 win against the Rebels on 29 August in the Premier League match, Somerset were the obvious choice.

It almost certainly won?t be as one-sided this time though. Surely Jason Doyle will score a lot more than the meagre seven points he amassed last time due mainly to two crashes which resulted in exclusions on both occasions for the Rebels? number 1. Jordan Frampton was the only other Rebels? race winner that night. He also managed a second place after Aaron Summers had fallen in heat 4 but the rest of the side managed only one other second place between them when Matthias Kroger beat Andrew Tully in an exciting heat 7. The remainder of their points came from third places, nine of them from 5-1 reverses.

The Monarchs will be without both William Lawson, riding in the under-21 Final in Pardubice, and Thomas Jonasson, out for the season with injury. Tomasz Piszcz of Birmingham steps in to guest for William while Rider Replacement operates for Thomas. With the new October averages now in force Thomas Jonasson moves to number 3 in the averages so the top average man (Piszcz on this occasion) is not eligible for an R/R ride.

The R/R gap is now at number 2 while Ryan Fisher, now second top average man, moves to number 3 to partner Andrew Tully while Matthew Wethers goes to number 5 with Derek Sneddon replacing him at reserve partnering Aaron Summers.

The only change in the Somerset line-up from last time is at reserve where Stephan Katt goes from number 6 to 4 with Matthias Kroger moving in the other direction.

It?s hard to predict just how much better Somerset will be. The track surface suited Edinburgh ideally last August but it hasn?t been ideal in the last couple of matches which have seen the Monarchs side handicapped by some poor gating and turning in a couple of disappointingly low scores by their standards. The Rebels will be no doubt be looking for a score in the mid 30s at least to give them a good chance of overturning any deficit in the second leg on 8 October. But Doyle apart, which other members of the Rebels? team will rise to the occasion? Kroger did have one very good race against Ryan Fisher and Andrew Tully but the pick of the rest of the team was the vastly improved Jordan Frampton who will ride at number 5.

Again the Rebels have the advantage of being able to use R/R for Simon Walker whose away average and performances have been much poorer than those who are able to replace him, i.e. all bar Jason Doyle. There are plenty of incentives to win this match well, not only to extend this remarkable season with other meaningful matches but also for a massive crowd puller against the losing Elite League side not to mention the final against either Rye House or King?s Lynn who contest the other semi-final.

A sluggish effort against Workington last week was countered by an excellent performance at Birmingham in winning the Premier Trophy. Most encouraging from that was the return to form of Aaron Summers recovering from the injuries he suffered last week. It will need a determined effort from the side to build up a decent lead against the League runners-up. The Rebels are not afraid to use both tactical options when behind last time and some astute team management from the Edinburgh side will be needed to be aware of the possibilities open to Somerset should they fall eight or more points behind.

It?s never ideal having to use a guest while also operating R/R in a match. Hopefully Tomasz Piszcz will be able to show his greatly impressive form of late with a double figure score to boost the winning margin to something over 20 points. It may take a win of that proportion to leave the Monarchs with a strong chance of progressing to the final on aggregate.

Line-ups:

Edinburgh: Tomasz Piszcz (Guest), Thomas H Jonasson (R/R), Ryan Fisher, Andrew Tully, Matthew Wethers, Derek Sneddon (Captain), Aaron Summers.

Somerset: Jason Doyle, Simon Walker (R/R), Emil Kramer, Stephan Katt, Jordan Frampton, Matthias Kroger, Brent Werner.