Somerset 'steel' themselves for Sheffield visit.

The Somerset 'Mike Manning Audio' Rebels return to Premier League action this Friday (27th) with the visit of the Sheffield 'Pirtek' Tigers to the Oak Tree Arena.

The team will be looking to continue where they left off in their last home Premier League match with the defeat of Glasgow Tigers by 56 points to 39, their biggest victory of the season so far, in order to take a big margin of victory with them when the bonus point is at stake when the two teams meet at Owlerton next month.

Apart from two breaks during the 1950's and late 1980's, speedway has been a continuous feature of the 'Steel City' since 1930, but despite this proud tradition, honours have not come the way of the Tigers until recent years, winning the Knock Out cup in 1974 (to go with the Division 2 Cup win they had in 1947).

It was to be another 25 years, however, before further honours were to come the way of the Tigers, but they made up for lost time by sweeping all before them in winning the Premier League, Young Shield and Premier League Fours in 1999.

The Tigers then retained their 'Fours' title in 2000, before following this up with another treble in 2002 in winning the Premier League, KO Cup and Young Shield. The Sheffield septet is somewhat unique in that 5 of their 7 riders are home bred Yorkshiremen, with only Trevor Harding (Australia) and Ricky Ashworth (Lancashire) being born outside the County.

The Somerset 'Mike Manning Audio' Rebels will track the same line up as in last week's match against Newport. Prior to commencement of the meeting the Club are to observe a minute's silence to mark the sad passing of Bob Hewlett, father of Andy Hewlett, who were the men responsible for introducing speedway to Somerset back in 2000.