Premier League: Somerset Sharp Rebels 66, Rye House Rockets 27

THIS was really Somerset against Tai Woffinden, as the home side piled on the points in a one-sided match on Friday night, writes JOHN MORGAN.

Rye House are the defending league champions, so to beat them by such a margin was no mean feat. Woffinden chalked up 17 out of 27 points with no back-up whatsoever.

Somerset were full of confidence after the previous night's win at Redcar. The first two heats were maximums for them, as has become the norm in home matches now.

Woffinden blasted out of the gate in heat three, with Emil Kramer just behind. Kramer made a great pass to inflict the only blemish on Woffinden's great evening's work.

The next three heats went to the Rebels, again with 5-1 maximums, and the score was now 29-7 in favour of a rampant Somerset side.

When Woffinden came out in heat seven as a tactical rider, he was soon away from the tapes, but was quickly swallowed up by Simon Walker. Woffinden did not wait long to make his move and went past the home skipper with ease.

His victory earned him six points and Rye House had what proved to be their only heat advantage of the match.

Woffinden is the recently-crowned British Under-21 champion and will take his place in next month's British Final at Swindon. He will be chasing the wild card up for grabs in the British Grand Prix at Cardiff.

Normal service resumed after his six-pointer, with the Rebels piling on the agony against a team who have a very good record at the Oak Tree Arena. Even Chris Neath was very quiet and appeared to quickly lose interest in the night's proceedings.

Stefan Ekberg started slowly and improved as the night went on. However, his final points tally of three was a major blow to the Rockets.

Heat 11 saw Stephan Katt and Walker power their way to another maximum against Neath and the gap was now 31 points. Rye House are used to dishing out hammerings to other teams, but on this occasion, they were very much second best in all departments.

The only decent race in this one-sided match came in heat 14, when Matthias Kroeger and Ekberg had a battle royal for second place behind Walker. Kroeger stalked his opponent for some time before joining his team-mate over the finishing line for Somerset's tenth maximum of the evening.

In the nominated race, Woffinden took another victory, over Kramer and Walker, to make Somerset's winning margin 39 points.

This victory put the Rebels top of the table. They were all in the points and now look a decent side who could go on to lift the championship. If they keep clear of injuries, this must be a real prospect.

Scores: Somerset 66 (J Doyle 4r 10+1, J Frampton 4r 8+3, E Kramer 5r 13, M Kroeger 4r 7+3, S Katt 4r 10+1, S Walker 5r 11+2, B Werner 4r 7+4), Rye House 27 (C Neath 5r 3, L Bowen 4r 1, T Woffinden 5r 17, T Allen r/r, S Ekberg 5r 3, D Halsey 5r 0, R Mear 6r 3).

On Friday (7.30pm), title-chasing Berwick Bandits visit the Oak Tree Arena. On Saturday (7pm), the Rebels have the return match against Rye House at Hoddesdon, then they travel to Newcastle on Sunday (5.30pm).

8:35am Saturday 10th May 2008

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