AFTER a three-week break, the Somerset Rebels return to track action on Thursday night with a visit to Redcar in the Premier League, before returning to the Oaktree Arena on Friday night for the first leg of their Travel Plus Knockout Cup tie against Plymouth.

The second leg at the Devils’ St Boniface Arena takes place just 24 hours later – and since their last meeting - a 59-34 home victory over Workington on June 19 - Somerset have seen Edinburgh take over at the top of the Premier League table by virtue of a +4 race points difference.

Rebels’ team manager, Garry May says he is keen to regain top spot from his side’s league encounter at Redcar.

He said:

“Of course the first objective from the season is to make the top six in order to qualify for the play-offs.

“But with the way the play-offs have been structured this yea,r to finish first or second has added importance as it means you will receive a bye directly into the semi-final stages of those play-offs.

“So we go to Redcar looking to pick up some points, as we do from all our matches, but if we can better the point that Edinburgh won on their recent visit there, then that will do us very nicely.”

Friday and Saturday then see the Rebels in back-to-back cup encounters with local rivals the Plymouth Devils - and Somerset go into these matches without their number one, Brady Kurtz, who will be away competing in the first round of the Under-21 World Championship.

May said: “Naturally, in an ideal world, we would have much preferred to have gone into the Cup matches against Plymouth with Brady in the side.

“But that’s not to be, although he will be riding for us at Redcar on Thursday night before heading down to Gatwick for a flight out to Italy on the Friday morning.”

“So for Friday’s home leg against the Devils we have Nick Morris guesting for us, Nick showing in last Friday’s Pairs Championship at the Oaktree Arena that he still knows the fastest way around the Oaktree Arena with three wins from four rides as well as setting the fastest time of the season in his opening race.”

“In Saturday’s return leg at Plymouth, Eddie Kennett will be Brady’s guest replacement, Eddie having scored an 18 point max in Rye House’s win at Plymouth in the League Cup earlier in the season, so anything approaching that score from him on Saturday night will do just fine.”

“I don’t like to set targets as to what sort of lead I would like us to take from the first leg and that can always come back to bite you, so we’ll just see what Friday night brings us and take it from there when we go back down to Plymouth the following evening.”