Somerset’s arrival at the Newcastle Stadium had most pundits expecting a good away victory, but the home side had more ambitious plans.

For the first 10 heats the Diamonds were well in control, leading by 12 points, but following the interval the fickle swinging pendulum of power had swung sharply in the Rebels pit as Somerset outscored Newcastle
10-23 in the final third of the meeting to sneak a dramatic one point victory, and three league points into the bargain.

Newcastle Team Manager George English said: “We were just not good enough tonight, although for a while it looked as though we were going to pull off a shock as the lads really did well in the first two thirds of the meeting but what a way to fold afterwards.

“Dickie’s [Juul] return from retirement went well and I doubt if anyone had expected him to score four over Somerset on his first match back – no - that was good going.

“The team will be desperately relieved to have George [Stancl] back should his plan come together to race in our next match in around 10 days time at King’s Lynn, but there’s still problems within the side and we’ll have to look closely at things soon.”