Highbridge-based speedway team The Somerset Rebels made history on Friday night when they qualified for their third successive Premier League Championship Grand Final.
They are the first team to achieve such a feat, with their 54-36 home win over Ipswich securing their place in the Grand Final against Edinburgh.
The first leg of the final will be held at Somerset’s Oaktree Arena on Friday 24th October with a 7.30pm start. The second leg will then be staged at Edinburgh’s Scotwaste Arena the following night, Saturday October 25th, at 7pm.
The match is a repeat of last year’s Grand Final, which saw Somerset win their first-ever League Championship crown, and although both sides have tracked septets quite different to the respective sides which lined up in last year’s Final, the two clubs have once again come through the regular league season and the play-off semi-final group stages to meet in the 2014 Championship-deciding Grand Final.
There was little to choose between the teams when they met during the regular league season, and while both sides won their home matches relatively comfortably, the combined scores of those two matches was a slender one, which all points to the Grand Final itself being a very close fought affair, it being determined by the aggregate score of the 2nd legs of the Final.
“As I said previously, very few, if any, of the speedway pundits gave us any chance of reaching the final once again when asked for their predictions at the start of the season,” said Rebels team manager Garry May. “In fact, most predicted that we would just scrape into the play-offs.”
“But I knew this team had the ability to go all the way when I first put it together, and after what has been a long, hard, season, we finished 2nd in the Premier League table with an 100% home record, and continued that form through the play-off semi-final matches to book our place in the Grand Final for a third successive year, which is a record within itself.”
“Last year’s final against Edinburgh was a classic event, both legs being close fought affairs, and I am sure that this year’s Final will be just as exciting, especially as Edinburgh will be looking to avenge losing out to us last year, while we’ll be wanting to defend our Championship crown, to be the first club to achieve such a feat since this Play-Off system were introduced to the Premier League.”
