The Somerset ‘Sharp’ Rebels hit the road this week with two away matches in as many days and will be hoping to carry the form that saw them post a record home win over Workington on Friday into those matches.

Although the Rebels currently sit at the top of the Premier League table and have matches in hand on their rivals, victory at either King’s Lynn [Wednesday] or Sheffield [Thursday] would certainly put them in a strong position as they strive for the Premier League Championship title.

Somerset will go into both matches minus their skipper, Simon Walker, who is still suffering from rib and back injuries sustained as a result of a crash during Somerset’s KO Cup encounter at Reading at the end of last month.

“The loss of Simon is a blow to the team,” said Somerset team manager Steve Bishop, “but I am sure that the rest of the guys will rally round and we will be able to cope without him.”

In past years both King’s Lynn and Sheffield have established their home tracks as something of a ‘fortress’ as far as visiting teams are concerned, but they have both shown some degree of vulnerability this year, King’s Lynn losing their first match at the Norfolk Arena in nearly 100 meetings at the start of the season, and Sheffield losing at home to Workington, and being held to a home draw last week by Redcar.

“Despite losing at home to Birmingham early on in the season, King’s Lynn have shown since then that they are still a tough nut to crack on the home patch,” continued Bishop, “A win there would really give out title aspirations a big boost, especially with the news that Edinburgh picked up an away win at Reading last night, but believe me, it will not be easy I can assure you of that.”  “However, King’s Lynn have not ridden for a week or so due to postponements, so maybe we’re catching them at the right time as they could well be a bit race rusty.”

“Sheffield, however, have looked a bit more vulnerable at home recently and I would like to think that we can go there and nick a win.”  “Owlerton is not unlike the Oak Tree Arena in shape, just on a bigger scale, and so I think it could be well suited to us and the way the guys ride.”

Although there is no team action at the Oak Tree Arena next Friday [18th], all bar the injured Walker should be taking part in the 2nd attempt to run the Exmoor Chase Individual Trophy that night.

“The sponsors of the meeting had gone to a lot of time and trouble, not to say expense, in putting together the meeting, only to have it rained off when we originally tried to stage it,” said Somerset Promoter Mike Golding, “and it is only fair that we try to run the meeting again, especially given the free date we had in our fixture list for Friday.”  “We are hoping that as many of the original field will be able to ride in Friday’s re-staging.”

Confirmation of the full line up and riding order for Friday’s re-staging of the Exmoor Chase will be advised shortly.

In late news from the prestigious Marmande Longtrack meeting held South West France last night, Somerset’s  Matthias Kröger won through to the ‘A’ Final where he finished fourth, Stephan Katt finished the evening by winning the ‘C’ Final